Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Stark Raving Dad

Episode Date: March 23, 2016

Season 3 has begun and the Simpsons have their most famous guest star ever! Get ready for an extra long episode to start another great year of Talking Simpsons…

This week's episode of Talking Simpsons is brought to you by Geek Fuel. Go to geekfuel.com slash lasertime to sign up for a box of geeky goodies sent to you directly. And if you sign up through geekfuel.com slash lasertime, you will get an exclusive Star Wars item worth $20 added to your first box! Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons. This is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of the Simpsons. I am your host, as always, Bob Mackie. Who else is here today? Christopher Atista.

Henry Gilbert. Brett Elston. That's right, Brett is back. And we're going to be talking about Season 3 today. That's right, we made it to Season 3, everybody. I'm so happy. Season 3, baby. Yes, so what do we need to say about season three the best gets better uh it was hard to capture when every line is funny and jesus christ have they

found their legs i think uh from season four onwards it's going to be a 90 minute podcast yeah i'm afraid but uh it's gonna get longer and longer but yeah we just finished season two uh that was blood feud which actually just aired like a month before this episode did. Wow. Yeah, this is the like we did a season two wrap up. We did a season two wrap up on patreon.com slash LazerTime. In case you didn't know, the show was made possible by donations from generous listeners on patreon.com

slash LazerTime. The first season of Talking Simpsons lives there. 13 episodes are there for you and as is the season recap. And you can find links to all the previous episodes when you head to patreon.com so your time pledge is low as 5 bucks you can get this show and 13 others

and as far as season 3 goes the major changes are Sam Simon left he notoriously did not like Matt Groening and he was just kind of there as the guy who knew how to run a TV show the nicest thing he said was like working on a show makes me a jerk and I don't like doing that.

And so that, I mean, that's the most conciliatory thing. I guess he had, and he had no idea, like. Yeah, he is dead now, by the way. He is dead. Yeah, he recently, like last year, I think it was about a year ago. Last year, stomach cancer finally.

It's great. He did like a fuck you tour of interviews, like just saying like, I'll say whatever I want, I don't care. And then he didn't even care much. He was not nostalgic at all for his time on The Simpsons. It has to seem short-lived for him.

He spent longer on Taxi, but I don't think he knew that this was going to make him a millionaire forever. A billionaire. And he gave all of his money to dogs, I think. And food banks. He talked about how on Whale Wars, their ship is his ship. He paid for it. There are like four ships, and one of them is the Sam Simon.

It's so funny that he takes Rupert Murdoch's money to buy ships to stop whaling I love it and all this environmental stuff so RIP Sam Simon he was a great guy and congratulations

Rupert Murdoch yes keep on keeping on and we are beginning season three again the season two recap is really fun like it's gonna show you

everything that happened from the Simpsons launch and this is that was like the peak of the phenomenon a bunch of really fun clips and factoids check it out patreon.com small spoiler you're gonna love the Nazis on tab section which was recorded to make fun of Mac raining it never aired so just a few

other things um Al Jean and Mike Reese ran this season and season four they were writers on seasons one and two and they also wrote for Alf and Johnny Carson and they like took a few months off in season two on the commentary Al Jean Jean is the constant of commentaries. Yes. Even when Matt Groening left, Al Jean just came back. He wasn't on the seasons he didn't write, he didn't execute or produce, but he's on every single other season. Yeah, and he's been dictator for life on The Simpsons since 2001 until the show ends.

He's not going to leave, I don't think, in any way. No, he's got quite a nasal voice on the commentaries i'm one to talk and every once in a while i follow him on twitter and i one thing i know from following on twitter is that he got angry about making fun of him on something awful i heard his feelings with an article making fun of the simpsons but come on you think he'd be used to that by now but also i feel like once a year he goes to one of the universal studios and goes to the springfield i would just imagine like meeting al jean in springfield of all places in the springfield he probably has a prototype of whatever you're standing in in his backyard and then the other one is mike reese who the two of them were writing partners for so long but then they uncoupled after i guess it was after the

critic right that's when they kind of stopped working i think so they did a few episodes for the simpsons with the critic team in the mid 90s but i think that was it for mike reese and he kind of just like went around the country in an rv writing children's books like uh he's living a dream life but he did queer duck he did that oh that's right yeah on icebox that is that is almost as lost as sammy but but those we talk about that in a later time episode what is it primetime animation uh the second one, yeah. Please help us find Sammy. But those two guys talked about on their things that most season three episodes are defined by them being very tired when working on them.

And that they were short and that they would always have to do an extended opening a lot of the times to cover the shortness. Yeah, and not to drone on too long about the change-ups, but Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who had run season 6 and 7, said, your first season you run, you work the hardest. The second season you run, you don't work that hard, which is why the second season usually isn't as good. But they're talking about the two-season type showrunner, which is for 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, from 9, then it was 9 to

12. Yeah, and then 13 to infinity. So, should we talk about today's episode? Yeah, back into the old formula. Here we go. Today's episode is Stark Raving Dad, which aired on September 19th, 1991. Chris, what happened on this epic day in history? Oh, my God. Oh, boy, Bobby.

It looks like Guns N' Roses releases not one, but two albums asking listeners to use their illusion uh child's play completes its first trilogy and bill cosby is unseated as forbes number one richest entertainer by the new kids on the block yeah just like ernest chucky went to the army in that one boy that's pretty bullshit though five five teenagers unseat one man as the number one it's not very fair i don't think so uh someone with a sister who's seven years older, I can't stress how much New Kids on the Block I was hearing at this exact point. I will not play cool.

I was into this and had this tape and rocked it quite a bit. I couldn't because my sister's into it. I much preferred Weird Al's White Stuff parody of it about Oreos.

Oh, yeah. That was much better. It's like we didn't have to try very hard, right? Yeah. It's like, oh, lasagna. Sure, it's funny. I like food.

Speaking of Cosby, they are still on the Thursday night time slot up against Cosby, which they didn't do so well for them in season two. They do a little better. They call this move by Fox to hurt Bill Cosby in CBS, NBC. Now hurting Bill Cosby seems like a good move. It does, but it hurt the show in the process. For sure, yeah. They were never as popular as they were in the first season.

But it was such a good lead-in for Babes in Drexel's Class. Oh, Drexel's Class. How we miss thee. I watched so much. Oh, and this is just a little clip I got for the beginning of this episode of Star Trek Raving Dead. Yes, you're welcome. That's my new ringtone. All right.

So the ads on this made it very clear Michael Jackson was in this episode. But they couldn't say it. Contractually, they couldn't. Contractually, they could not. They couldn't say he wrote Do the Bartman either because of his contract. Okay, so should we just talk about... Well, you're seeing all that stuff about Kesha's movie contract, and you see how fierce these things are. That you can't get out of working with a rapist.

Michael Jackson could not appear and sing on things that were dictated in his Sony contract. Exactly. Even the most popular and powerful man in the world was beholden to a contract. And I mean, do we need to talk about who Michael Jackson is? How there will never be anyone more famous than him? He's also worth using the death

jingle over, I'd say. We do have a Talking Simpsons death jingle that we rarely get to play. I really thought we'd play it more. This will probably be the season. Death stalks you at every turn. There it is, death! It's very respectful. So I think a few years after this, Michael Jackson would be embroiled in the first of, I think, two molestation scandals.

Oh, that's right. That hasn't started yet. At this point, he's still be embroiled in the first of, I think, two molestation scandals. It was 94, I think. That hadn't started yet. Yeah. At this point, he's still the biggest star in history. Black and white is just a few months away. With Bart in it. Yeah. So I guess we should talk the behind the scenes stuff on this.

Michael Jackson had kind of a fixation on Bart, honestly. He really did. We talked about this on a previous episode. The story of him writing Do the Bart man was him calling James O. Brooks and saying, I love Bart. I want to make him a number one song. Yeah.

And that was weird. And that just continued with, we could write an episode for him. You know what? It's not weird, but when in conjunction with everything else, like I, it's,

I don't, I don't, I don't even want to think about whether Michael Jackson did or didn't because the evidence is damning. But it is one of those lives where it's like no one can even understand what he had to live through.

He's probably in the wrong, but come on. I'm his age right now obsessing over Bugs Bunny. I probably would have looked weird too if I were a multi-millionaire. What if you had a billion dollars and had never had a childhood and had a father that beat you and were a Jehovah's Witness? Called up Steven Universe

saying I want to do a whole podcast about you. No one got back to me. I am not a guest star. Yeah, he literally called Matt Gurney and was like, I want to make an episode with Bart.

And that's how it happened. And Matt Gurney was like, no, this is a prank call. And then Michael Jackson called him back and was like, no, this is Michael Jackson. That's my awesome Michael Jackson impersonation.

I promise it won't happen again. And that he definitely could not sing on the album that is kip lennon exactly doing a sound like uh voice i yeah so the speaking voice is michael jackson exactly it is mj the other weird thing about it was that this was so this was in secrecy for such a long time now it's been out in the open but that's why this this is one of the most important commentaries you can listen to on the dvd is this one because up until 2003 you knew it was michael jackson but as far as i could find as a simpsons fan there was very little information on the making of that episode and they even talk about on the commentary they're like well we were all sworn to secrecy

about this but i guess we don't care anymore. And then once he died, like everybody was super clear. Like that awesome Simpsons live at the Hollywood Bowl thing. I embedded that in some article, but it's a yearly Smith introducing Kip Lennon to it. She just tells the whole story like flat out like this is actually Kip Lennon. And I'm going to bring him on stage and he's going to sing. They did the reading of the script at Michael Jackson's mansion they did in Neverland where Kip Lennon was at the table too and he would just start singing for the things and then Michael would start talking they barely edited any of the script even apparently he liked it there was a reference to Prince that they changed to Elvis

oh that was the only only change he apparently asked for but then when you see that the plot is like ends with the Michael Jackson stand-in hanging out with bart's like it is it just makes you like in retrospect yeah and also from the commentaries i got the feeling that they thought michael jackson was going to sing the song and he brings in kip lennon this little white guy so it's a it's a funny like i mean he's a white guy in the show but and he has a white guy singing for him and uh when the writers were like what what why are you doing this? He's like, oh, it's a joke on my brothers. He did it because he's a crazy billionaire, or

whatever, and he's like, I want to play a joke on my brothers through the most popular show on television. I'm Michael Jackson. You can't say no to me. There's 8 million stories to tell from that comic. It's worth pointing out if somehow you didn't already know, but in the show, it's advertised that it's going to be him. Not only is it they can't say it directly, but the character

in his voice is a nine foot tall giant white guy. He looks like Barney Gumbel's lost brother. Yeah, with the voice of Michael Jackson. So it's like a joke on a joke. It's like a fat version of the bar boss in the Simpsons arcade game, which I am allowed to mention because so many sound clips from it have played already on the very show you're listening to.

Here's a little clip of Kip Lennon singing that I wanted to play real quick. It's a shame to admit it to another guy, but I'm scared. We all get scared once in a while. Maybe I can help you. Homer, the two of us need look no more. We both found what we were looking for

With a friend to call my own I'll never be alone And you, my friend, will see You've got a friend in me There you go, Kip. That's like, it's one of my, but that's not the only song that's a direct reference, other than Bart Humming beat it,

to Michael Jackson's song, Ben, from the Willard soundtrack about a friendly rat that you might remember, the Crispin Glover remake from a few years ago. He covered it in a very weird video. I believe he covered it at the Grammys when he was incredibly young. There's a really moving live performance of him doing it.

Yes, we're looking up. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. I really like this song. Which he sang at what age? Really early. Mid-70s. I did want to point out, here's the weird thing.

Michael Jackson, biggest star in the history of anything. But maybe the Simpsons have been popular and active for longer at this point oh yeah it is about to hit 30 years yeah and you could you could argue how long michael jackson was active for 68 to 9 2000 he'd record for one year pedophilia for another three then record again it's like any artist schedule well yeah i guess really no i mean if you just see it from like 68 to 98 i think that is a fair. He put out his story. He put out an album right before 9-11, as I recall. Yeah, it was like the month before.

So if you do it 68 to 01, that's still 33 years. Not a lot of output in his last 10 years, though. Well, he was too busy drinking his milk. Jesus juice. No, the milk was his like, let's not get into this. I want to get into this. This is the return of something. I couldn't believe it.

I remember the lucky red hat from this episode, but it appears so much in the earlier seasons, not so much. But this is how it changes everything about Homer's life. Bart, my birthday is in two days. I'm going to be eight years old. It's a big number, almost double digits. Well, enjoy it while you can. Everything changes when you hit the big 1-0. Your'm going to be eight years old. It's a big number, almost double digits. Well, enjoy it while you can. Everything changes when you hit the big 1-0.

Your legs start to go. Candy doesn't taste as good anymore. Bart, will you please let me pour my little heart out? Sorry, this old timer does ramble on sometimes, don't he? Bart, I do so much for you, and yet you have disappointed me on every one of my birthdays. I've made things for you which you've lost or broken within hours. Okay, we'll forget all that. Okay, it's done. I'm doing it. you which you've lost. Okay, it's done. I'm doing it. Birthday gift coming your way. Oh, thank you.

That is one of those small things of... Terrible intro for me but that is the introduction of the episode. And that's a small thing that doesn't happen often in cartoons where two characters talk over each other. Yes, Bob's Burgers seems remarkable because it does that primarily. Actually has cross talk. Yeah, and i think the

fucking movie rango like they they played that up and i'd watch the movie i'm like it's not bad this totally shows that people are talking to one another and all of us have siblings like when did you start getting gifts for a sibling uh i do i that just is a very guys if you're just listening to the show for the first time i am bart's age i acted a lot like bart this is a conversation i would have had with my sister. Just me not considering her feelings. And her begging me to do so. It's the same age, but my sister was way older, so this never really came

up. My sister was about Lisa's age. I have a sister three years older than me, and I've never bought her a birthday present, ever. So, I don't have a good relationship with my sister. So, that's some Talking Simpsons trivia for you. Put it in the wiki. This is the line

about where the episode's plot line starts out. Who stole my shirt? I washed it. Oh, thank you, Marge. Ah! Pink! Marge, I can't wear

a pink shirt to work. Everybody wears white shirts. I'm not popular enough to be different. Oh, Homer, don't panic. You have plenty of white shirts. Oh, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. Oh, no!

Pink! Pink! Pink! Pink! It's all over, Marge. It's all over. No. I don't know how this could have happened. Oh, my lucky red hat.

Clean as a whistle. You! You did this to me! Immediately choking his son. Marge doesn't even care that he's choking. I hope you guys have been on this little journey with us watching it chronologically from the beginning. This episode just starts out so much more unbridled

and confident. It's faster to get to a place, though. I think it's still a very early season thing to have Bart be the cause of a problem for Homer. That would have been a season two thing. Same with Lucky Red Hat. This is actually the last production episode of season two. It's not a season three episode.

Yeah, I mean, it ran in season three, but it was produced in season two. I mean, that happens every year. Most of the first episodes you'll see in a broadcast season is not the production season. In terms of who they really ironed out in this, is that the very beginning, Burns and Smithers are... They're perfect by this point. They're apex. Yep. Why is that man in pink? Oh, that's Homer Simpson, sir. He's one of your boobs from Sector 7G. Simpson,

eh? Well, judging by his outlandish attire, he's some sort of free-thinking anarchist. I'll call security, sir. Excellent. These color monitors have already paid for themselves yes worrying about anarchists is a very 1920s thing like bomb throwing anarchists so it's a very mr burns concern and that's a great that is like a great shot of homer among all those people that crowd

walking through so good there were a couple lines that i really love that we we passed by real quick i'm not popular enough to be different as one of my favorites. But also, when Lisa wakes Bart up at the very beginning, he says, oh my God, Dad's dead. She's like, no.

He says, what do you know? I'm relieved. That's a cute moment. Every moment of this is funny. This is why it was so hard to catch this stuff. My son just threw his red hat

in with the white laundry. Spear me the tiresomatics of the Simpson family. Take him away. You know, Mr. Burns, his body cavity search revealed nothing, and we must have x-rayed him a hundred times. Maybe he's telling the truth.

Or perhaps you two are in cahoots. Smithers, I seem to recall you had a penchant for bell-battled trousers back in 79. Sir, that was my costume from the plant production of HMS Pinafore. Oh, yes, of course. Your spirited hornpipe stole the show, as I recall. Okay, season three is when they're like, oh, Smith course. Your spirited hornpipe stole the show, as I recall. Okay, season three is when they're like, oh, Smithers is gay,

by the way. He's gay. That's a lot to unpack there. And the first HMS Pinafore reference. We'll see it next season. Gene and Reese love those guys. But, well,

there's a lot to unpack there. One, they gave Homer a body cavity surgery. That just goes by really fast. That's how tight and fast all the lines are coming at you now. You see how sane or mashugana he was chosen. I have to ask you guys something, though.

Do you think pink was chosen because it was a feminine color? Because I remember in the early 90s, I mean, I was a kid then, but there was this anxiety. Like, if I wear pink, it's a girl color, and I don't want to be masculine. I'm sure for an adult, absolutely. But in 90, 91, I feel like hot hot pink neon green like all those colors weren't that 91 grade school like it wasn't still the 80s yeah yeah yeah at this point in the 80s the pink was cool but i don't think for an adult yeah for an adult in a power plant i'm sure i think any any 40 50 year old adult would watch that episode and be like pink and work absolutely

not but as a kid we're like i mean hom Homer's job is literally a white-collar job. They're called that because you're expected to wear a white-collar shirt there. We've all worked in places that have almost no dress codes. And I don't just mean right now. I've been in the same outfit for six years, like this exact same outfit. I am wearing a decaying, bootlegged,

Mario-bedazzled shirt. This is King Hustler. It is impressive how the neck is falling apart. Yeah, it's disintegrating. Wanted to wear it one last time. This, I love this sequence, but this is Homer watching America's Funniest Home Videos, which of all the things Homer watches,

it's still on the air. It is still on the air. Who was the host? It's not Tom Bergeron. He just left because he did it for longer than Saget, and I am saying that as someone who I'm coming out

as a fan of America's Funniest Home Videos it's great it is the internet distilled into a television show that's what YouTube is now yes exactly and it's where

Mystery Science Theater people went to as well to start making some real money yes yes and it plays on WGN every time I go back home to my parents house but the AFV parody

leading into like Homer gets a survey from his work for having a picture to see if he's sane or not our fifty thousand dollar home video finalists are dog on fire rough anybody order a hot dog and finally baby with a nail gun okay it's time to cast your votes now. Dog on fire. Dog on fire. Hey, Dad, do you hear voices?

Yes, I'm hearing one right now while I'm trying to watch TV. Yes. Are you quick to anger? Bart, shut up or I'll shut you up. Yes. Do you wet your pants? Well, even the best of us has an occasional accident. That ending with that, I did that for probably nine years. Yes. Yeah.

There is something else in here that I have. Oh, God, it's awful. I can't wait till we get to it. Now I'm going to keep going sequentially. The dog on fire, dog on fire thing, I always think of that when it's time to choose between things. My brain just goes, dog on fire, dog on fire. This weird thing that's stuck in my brain. Only thing I thought of is that I believe that is the title of the Daily Show theme.

It is, it is. Dog on Fire. We also went by Lisa had her kind of iconic poem about... This is an intimate psychological profile. I can't fill this out for you.

All right, all right. I'll get Lisa to do it. Lisa, you like homework. Could you fill out this form for me? Well, all right. If you listen to the poem I just wrote. Oh, okay.

Meditations on Turning Eight by Lisa Simpson. I had a cat named Snowball. She died, she died. Mom said she was sleeping. She lied, she lied. Why, oh, why is my cat dead? Couldn't that Chrysler hit me instead? I had a hamster named Snuffy.

He died. It's a real poetry slam in Lisa's room. And I don't think we pointed this out, though. The idea of Snowball 2 being a black cat is a joke. Because Snowball 1 was a white cat. Because a white cat is like Snowball, of course. It is completely forgotten now. And also, in that moment when Homer's

watching AFV, or whatever it's supposed to be, Snowball 2 is on his stomach, which is something I never see Homer laying down with the cat laying on his stomach, which is a very, now that I'm an adult, and I'm like, yeah, cats always lay on top of you, but I don't ever recall Snowball and Homer crossing paths, like, ever, and there they were. And that was the, Yardley Smith, I remember, that was the one funny-ish thing she did on the Inside the Actors Studio was read that poem publicly. That was the one, because she's the least funny. She's not an improviser. She's an actor.

I felt bad for her, honestly, on the Inside the Actors Studio, because even Nancy's not funny, but she at least knows how to improvise slightly, like voice actor sense. But meanwhile, Dan and Harry and Hank, like they're real. Yeah, she's always seemed to me like outside of, in her real life, like a 70-year-old trapped in a little lady's body. Nancy Cartwright or Yardley Smith? Yardley Smith, yeah.

Nancy is a 10-year-old boy. Like Homer's survey fails, he's taken away to what? Does anybody else write down the name of the institution? Oh, New Bedlam. The New Bedlam Home for the Emotionally Interesting. And he meets none other than Michael Jackson himself, sort of. Who are you?

Hi, I'm Michael Jackson from the Jacksons. I'm Homer Simpson from the Simpsons. Lots of good act breaks. Here's the thing about this meeting. It's implied that Homer does not know who Michael Jackson is. And I feel like when he grew up in the world he grew up in, Michael Jackson was inescapable.

Even if you didn't listen to him, Johnny Carson was like 20 minutes of Michael Jackson jokes a night, I think. We see him in a flashback to the 70s humming songs on the radio where the Jackson 5 would have been being played. Yeah, I guess he's that stupid and that cool.

I don't know. I can't believe you never heard of me. I'm a very popular entertainer. Oh, of course I've heard of you. I mean, you'd have to be living under a rock not to know. What'd you say your name was? Michael Jackson. Doesn't ring a bell.

Well, have you heard of MTV? Nope. Motown? No. Beat it. You beat it. Thriller. What was that last one?

Thriller. Nope. Well, how about this? Billie Jean is not my lover. She's just a girl who says that I am the one. Wow. How do you do that thing with your feet? The moonwalk?

No, that thing with your feet. I'm now watching this again connecting with my dad. I bet he didn't know who half that shit was either. Now, if Homer met Steve Miller, that'd be a different story. Also, my parents at that age, and they would have known who Michael Jackson was. Yeah, probably. Well, I mean, we knew who Michael Jackson was as a kid. My parents definitely knew who he was.

Yeah, but I mean, we did too. As a kid, there were some references on The Simpsons that were like, I've maybe sort of heard of them, but I knew who Michael Jackson was. I didn't know a ton about Michael Jackson, but I probably had seen the Moonwalker movie even by that point. Yeah. Just because it had claymation in it. It's so good.

Dennis Hopper getting kids addicted to heroin. Joe Pesci? Joe Pesci. That's the Joe Pesci one, yeah. It's conceivable Dennis Hopper would be in that movie. That's something Mike Reese makes a point in his secret commentary for guys. Look for it. It's the fifth track, secret commentary.

But he brings up that Michael Jackson is director proof in that he has been directed by the greatest of all time, James L. Brooks on this, but also Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, John Landis. All these people.

Martin Scorsese. You said that already. They get the same performance out of him every time. He's just always like, yes, I'm Michael Jackson. Like, he's not an actor. He just is. Captain EO's so good. I just want to grab this. I didn't get it at the time, but this new Bedlam scenery is flooded with

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Which is such a super important movie for people born just before us. Yeah, the entire cast is there. Yeah, yeah, totally. That and Hannibal Lecter. Which became like eight other jokes. They did a million other One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest jokes.

But yeah, I didn't see One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for a few years after this. It's great. I did love it. But this made no sense to me then. I think the next time when Barney does the suffocate homer and throw the thing through the window thing like that's when i got in that's when i finally was like i guess i really need to watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest to get these jokes if you've never seen cuckoo's nest is so meaningless we call this guy the chief he's been here since 1968

never says a word never Never moves a muscle. Hey, Chief. Hello. You're in there. Perfect. You spoke. Well, it's about time somebody reached out to me. So this is another movie that I have seen, Wonderful Over the Coaches Mess, which will baffle you, I know. If you're a 302010 listener, Brett hasn't seen any movie. There's not a laser or a superhero in it I haven't seen.

But this is none of it. It's a water fountain. I know. But somehow I ended up seeing Wonderful Over the Coaches Mess, and it was great, as you know. But I had seen it after memorizing this episode on every Simpsons. It was post-Simpsons taking over my brain. So I'm the only one laughing in the class when we're watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo.

And I'm like, that's the guy! And it's the sincere, thoughtful movie. Well, also seeing it, you see Danny DeVito in it. And now they hire Christopher Lloyd, too, I believe. They hired character actors to be crazy people. Two taxi cast members. But who's the real crazy person? Michael calls Bart.

I love this clip. Joe's crematorium. You kill him, we grill him. Hello? Who is this? I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you? I'm Michael Jackson.

The Michael Jackson? No way. It's true. I'm with your father in a mental institution. And is Elvis with you? He could be. It's a big hospital. Oh, come on.

If you're really Michael Jackson, who were your last four dates for the Grammys? Brooke Shields, Diana Ross, Manuel Lewis, and Bubbles. Shiver me timbers. You are Michael Jackson. Manuel Lewis should not have been your date to it, Michael Jackson. Again, damning evidence All over the place But in terms of like

Verifying your personality To Bart I could be Daffy Duck Or like Ren and Stimpy I could Spout off three facts Very easily This episode is also

I got a clip of the other one But I won't play it Oh yeah I'm going to deny you that But the beginning of Great Simpsons Hotline Gags Yes You've reached the new

Bedlam Wrongly committed hotline gags yes yes you've reached the new bedlam wrongly committed hotline all of our operators are currently busy please stay on the line this is the first the first whole music joke it's an episode with michael jackson with several songs and i think that's the one like real license song it sounds like oh in a gata devita later too oh you're right yeah yeah uh but and though i did like that you reminded me yeah the the the one like real license song it sounds like oh in a gata devita later too oh they do in a gata devita later yeah yeah uh but and though i did like that you reminded me yeah the the the crusty hotline joke yeah i love the number was 1-9-0-9 oh you clown like does it yeah hi kids you've reached the crusty hotline if you haven't asked your parents' permission, naughty, naughty, but Krusty forgives you.

And the hotline is just him laughing. You guys did an episode for Laser Time about hotlines. Did you know there was just a hotline you called to hear laughter? What? And one you would call to hear crying. Wow. These were real things that made people lots and lots of money. And phones were things people called people on.

Yes. Yeah, that didn't have a reason. Connected to your wall. Yeah, you and your goddamn Snapchat, Galaxy, Samsung notes. The phone he calls him on by... Which iPhone do you have there, Chris? The phone he calls him on, by the way, has speed dial to a bunch of talk shows, all of which are no longer on television.

Yeah, but I wrote them down. Larry King Show, Oprah, Phil Donahue, Geraldo, and the Ski Report. The Ski Report? Yeah, Ski Report. I don't know. And I looked it up, but of course, I come up with fucking Ski Reports. down larry king show oprah phil donahue heraldo and this ski report the ski report and i looked it up but of course i come up with fucking ski reports like on the local news like but i i don't understand that joke maybe the joke is just like this is not a talk show it's why is this here right you know i that could just be it amazingly all those talk show hosts are alive that that joke i didn't get and then Michael Jackson And Krusty goes I thought he was saying Ed Bella

Me too I'm going to look up Ed Bella And when you look that up It goes to Aunt Bella On the exhaustive Simpsons wiki And Aunt Bella has a wiki entry And it said Krusty mentioned her once

We never saw her It's like two sentences This is a stub Please add more to it I finally got her as Aunt Bella Yeah It says it so weirdly. Who is she now?

Nobody. Nobody knows. It's like, oh, hi, Aunt Bella. Oh, wait, I've got another call on the line. Also, I think there's another first in this episode, though. Correct me if I'm wrong. They're watching an Itchy and Scratchy episode that is about a birthday. And I think it is the first time an Itchy and Scratchy is watched that is directly related to the plot of the episode.

I was thinking that too, yeah. I feel like the other times we'd seen Itchy and Scratchy, it was just mindless violence. Like the most recent one to this that I recall is from the Unky Herb episode. And it's just mindless violence of him saying... It's like an ice cream shop. Yeah, that's right. He puts him in a milkshake blender. And that's because Lisa said a better birthday.

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday overlooked middle child. Happy birthday to me. That has to be the saddest thing in the Simpsons history.

I have all these other clips that I wanted to get. Again, too many clips. I think Homer and Marge really whiffed on Lisa's birthday. She got stationery from them, which is a good Lisa gift, but there's no party. There's no celebration. They screwed up too. It wasn't just Bart. Also, did your parents...

I like the argument between poor house and crazy house for Marge. I only heard poor house from my parents. My dad always gave me anxiety. It's something he'll still say to his day. Everybody spends too much money. I am the smart one who spends no money.

And if it was up to me, if it was up to you, you'd spend all my money and I'd be in the poorhouse. I don't remember making much of an emotional impact on my father, but his finances were definitely

at the top of his mind. I don't think poorhouses have existed since the 19th century and maybe only exclusively in the UK. There's a poorhouse dick. I just remember Scrooge talking about them. I'm referencing one of my favorite lines of the show. Mrs. Simpson, I'm sorry, but your husband suffers from a persecution complex,

extreme paranoia, and bladder hostility. Doctor, if you just talked to him for five minutes without mentioning our son Bart, you'd see how sane he is. You mean there really is a Bart? Good Lord! That is my line of the show. Yeah, line of the show? Well, my line of the show is close to that.

It ties into it. Line of the show, everybody. That's the joke. Careful, man. He wets his pants. Yes, that's great. I missed that. But that's one of three wetting your pants jokes,

and they're all great. Bladder hostility? Hostility. Hostility. I did like the, it was a very vaudeville bit, but I liked Homer with the agoraphobic guy too, who again, lifted directly from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Oh, also, another one of my favorite lines is Homer going like,

when I get home, I'm gonna wrap my hands around your neck and smother you with kisses. Yeah, because MJ... Whenever you got John Homer, up the dose. It turns out Michael Jackson, this Michael Jackson, is there on his own recognizance, and he can leave anytime

he wants and goes home with the Simpsons. Oh, and also that he doesn't drink and is a vegetarian. Homer's like, are you sure you're here voluntarily? That's another good line. I like that. It's a very Homer line. Was that true for Michael Jackson? I would be surprised. I believe so, yeah. I mean, again, he grew up in the

worst situation scenario. Well, I was going to say in the church of Latter-day Saints. Yeah, Jehovah's Witness. Jehovah's Witness. I think it's the same thing. Which, yeah, similar. Well, one has no black people in it and one has many black. Jehovah's Witness. Jehovah's Witness. I think it's the same thing. Which, yeah, similar. Well, one has no black people in it and one has many black people. That's right.

But MJ comes home and Bart ruins a surprise for everybody by telling the entire town that Michael Jackson has come there. Here's the guy you want to see!

He's 300 pounds. He's white. He's dressed without flair. I love what was important to Moe. He came for the flair. And then everybody boos Bartz. That was great. I also did love the extra long version of Inigata De Vida.

So the Inigata De Vida thing, we had to ask my mom what that was. And she loved Inigata De Vida in her youth, and so she played it for us, and I didn't have the patience to sit through past the first eight minutes of the drum solo. I only know it as another joke from the Simpsons. to the local oldies station, we would call in. A few times we were like, call in and request Indigata De Vida, see if they'll play it. They never did because that's why

they don't play it on radio because it's too long and you get to the way of commercials. Yeah. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs.

Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? What is up, Talking Simpsons fans? Chris here. Briefly jumping in to tell you this show is brought to you by GeekFuel.

And if you go to GeekFuel.com slash LazerTime right now, you can get a free Star Wars item worth $20 just for signing up for a mystery box so what's in the mystery box you ask uh six to eight items an exclusive t-shirt and a 50 value of kit and caboodle featuring famous stuff from marvel dc nintendo zelda game of thrones pop figs pint glasses posters you never know quite what it's going to be but it's like a delicious geeky gift that shows up at your door whenever you feel like it and oh guess what they've had simpson stuff involved in the box in the past so go to geekfuel.com slash laser time right now sign up for one of their

boxes get it as a gift for a geek in your life and get a free 20 star wars item right now And speaking of songs, I always feel like I'm missing a chunk of this episode because after they leave the mental institution, Homer has no interaction with MJ. And he just kind of leaves Leon Kompowski alone. With his children. I picked up on that. It's like, okay, this guy is not who he says he was.

Let's let him live with us. He's functionally homeless, and we don't know much about him, even though he's voluntarily committed himself. So, yeah, what's going on? There's a great scene in the last season about all the people who have come to live in the Simpsons' house, and Homer just walks by the camera.

Sampler times. Beautiful, beautiful. Again, I like the new Simpsons. I do love the line too where Lisa says, so I ask about my birthday present, but I don't want to. And he says, maybe you should trust that instinct and not ask. Bart's really clever in this episode. I have to say, to the point of almost too clever for his character. Yeah, I think his Bartness has turned up to 11 in this episode i mean this is a hella bart episode well i think i don't know it

seems like the show is like losing its grip on groundedness and for the sake of humor like just just the right amount for me personally guest star this is a guest star heavy episode just like they would do a decade or two decades later of we write this around a famous person who said but i i do love this exchange when uh leon or michael talks to bart here's how you can fix the lisa birthday situation hey bart hey you bart when i was a kid i didn't have much money so you know what i did when my sister's birthdays rolled around stiffed them no i wrote them a song to show that i cared. I can't write a song. I'm only ten. Only ten?

When I was your age, I had six gold records. Hey, Looney Tunes, this is what Michael Jackson looks like. You look like a big, fat, mental patient. You'd be amazed how often I hear that. Just leave me alone. Look, boy, either Michael Jackson is some guy working in a recording studio in L.A.,

or he's here with you willing to work on this song. It's your choice. So long. Wait, wait, Michael! You go sit at the piano, and I'll boil some coffee. I didn't know how to make coffee for like ten years ago. Bart is boiling it. I want to see what Bart's

coffee looks like. It's weird that he called him boy and not Bart. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. It's also, it's just, again, weird of the Michael Jackson guy, like, in the bedroom of a boy, hanging out with him. It's weird that he called him boy and not Mark. Yeah. It's weird. It's also just, again, weird of the Michael Jackson guy in the bedroom of a boy hanging out with him. That does not read for me here at all. Because it's not MJ. So the character of Leon Kompowski not

only can copy Michael Jackson's voice but his songwriting ability which is very impressive. He should just go to LA and become a recording artist, I think. The training wheels come off your bike. You start to notice boys you like. You just put that in because it's commercial.

Love his laugh there. Or actually, Leon Kompowski could be the Simpsons universe's Kip Lennon. Replace his voice. I wonder if that's when... At eight, is that when Michael Jackson noticed the boys he liked? Is that what happened?

Oh, God. Come on, Henry. This is the thing that ruined me for, I think, a good year. Lisa. Her teeth are big and green. Lisa. She smells like gasoline.

Lisa. Da-da-da-deesa. She is my sister. Her birthday i missed her oh no i that i don't know i don't know what that's a parody of uh i mean i think it's like the batmobile lost its wheel song it was a kid's song of matt graining's generation that they then taught to kids of our generation through bart so it's like a military like a susa thing yeah like that yeah so when i remember being a kid and just super wired and add and like none of i feel like i didn't have many friends in my school because i ran around

singing variations of this uh your head is big and blue uh andy you smell like doggy too i'm just making myself crack up i have no friends and I'm just tormenting everyone around me. Just like today. Almost exactly like today. But this time there's a Patreon. Please support my awful habits. I did like the bit in the treehouse, too, where Lisa's like, even if you weren't looking at me, I would still look.

I cannot get over the thing. The thing I think most of all is missing from Modern Simpsons is different camera angles. It's always the same camera angle. And that joke is framed amazingly. Lisa crying is framed beautifully and has a warped perspective, which they never do anymore on Modern Simpsons. Because it's all tweeny and flashy. I guess it's all leading up to this, though, right?

I don't know. You tell me when to cut the clip. I love that Bart wakes her up. It's a great book. And Bart wakes her up the same way she woke him up at the start of the episode it's good storytelling yeah but bart it's 6 a.m that's right hope you like your present and a one and a two and a one two three four it's really good percussion man it's like the Free Willy song. Lisa, it's your birthday. God bless you this day.

You gave me the gift of a little sister and I'm proud of you today. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. I could play the rest of it. I love that. So this is the whole reason I wanted to be on this episode,

like above all else. I'm like, I have to be. So that song, this is my aside briefly, but it relates to this song. So when this episode was advertised on TV, my experience was Bart's, where saw blah blah blah and somewhere in my mind i just twisted it into directly oh michael jackson is on the show because that's what they were trying to say without saying so i told a bunch of friends who lived on my street and again my street is it's the middle

of nowhere so it's this winding street that just happens to have other houses so i told other kids on the street michael jackson on this episode of the simpsons none of them watched the simpsons but they were like michael jackson really is on the simpsons this week that's crazy so we came over and we watched the episode and then whatever his name shows up the eight foot wrestler looking guy and they're just like you said michael jackson i'm like that's him like the boy i know that's him oh my god brett was bart and they're like and they're just and for they're like kind of i could feel the air in the room just like everyone's like you what is this dumb cartoon man and then so we watched the whole episode and eventually it won them over because they were like this at oh because

there's the same age they're like 10 i think one of maybe was 12 and so they eventually were like that was really great so then we went and rode our bikes and i finally got my first real bike training wheels came off your bike well mere weeks before uh i finally didn't have my sister's hand-me-down bike anymore that was a 70s banana seated like the brown toned uh 70s but i have like flowers on it and uh tassels were on there okay yeah uh and i finally had my own real bike so then we rode around the wilderness on dirt pads and together in a group of like four singing this song and i'm just thinking about how i'm so excited because like simpsons is great the super nintendo just came out that

episode was so fun this song is fun and man i'm gonna ride my bike all night and life get better yeah so in that moment we did a whole laze of time about like what are the good old days and a lot of people it seems to be like age 10 11 and 12 are kind of where you not not our personal good but when was the age yeah the age where you really formed a lot of like i it seems to be like age 10, 11, and 12 are kind of where you... Not our personal good, but when was the age? Yeah, the age where you really formed a lot of like, I'm actually discerning now. And I can actually have favorite things. Get woke, dog. I can see just an old man raking his lawn as you kids drove by.

Like, who is Lisa? You damn kids. But yeah, so every time I hear that song, I'm like taken back to a specific moment of 1991. And just like, man, what a great year. Anecdote isn't as – I clipped that in a certain way because that was one of the first waves I ever downloaded on the internet. And it always started with, like, hope you like your present. And every time – when Napster started, I kept trying to find longer versions of the song. They don't really exist.

Did the entire Lisa, it's your birthday song play when you shut down your computer? Yeah. And your dad was like, what the hell is this shit? Mine always had them – You had a prodigy. longer versions of the song. They don't really exist. Did the entire Lisa, it's your birthday song play when you shut down your computer? Yeah. What the hell is this shit? Mine always had them singing the Mitchell song. I had a great Cornholio rant when you shut down my computer. Wow. Good times.

So then he reveals he's Leon Kompowski. He knows he had a Mary Poppins-ish turn. Because this is at the end of the wave. Like one of the first waves I ever downloaded. Oh, this is the best present I ever got. Thank you, Bart. Thank you, Michael. Well, my work is done here.

Hey, Michael. What happened to your voice? This is my real voice. My name is Leon Kompowski, and I'm a bricklayer from Patterson, New Jersey. All my life I was very angry, until one day I just... Talked like this. All of a sudden everybody was smiling at me, and I was only doing good on this earth. So I kept on doing it to make a tired point.

Which one of us is truly crazy? Not me. I got this. That's a great line. I know I cut the earlier lines as a visual joke, but like the not insane flyer. I wish I had one. We didn't even talk about that. I want that not insane flyer. Him having the insane one. We didn't even talk about that. I want that not insane flyer.

Like him, him having the insane on his hand the whole time was so great of all the merchandise they've made. How come they not have made a not insane framed pit. And also when they arrive at the place, Kent Brockman says, that's the father of the family. We recently got checked out of a mental institution.

I do want the insane stamp. Yeah. So before I be a tattoo, there's gotta be a dude with that. I'm sure the insane stamp. That should be a tattoo. There's got to be a dude with that tattoo. I saw one of Daryl Strawberry crying on some guy's leg in Portland. Any Simpsons tattoo you can think of, it exists. And it's probably in Portland.

That's coming later this season even, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Homer a bat? That's the first first run episode of the Beat the Cosby Show. Hopefully we'll have a special guest on for that one. So this will be our longest episode yet, but I have one story to close us out with. Do you guys know about the sequel episode which was scrapped? Yes, I know.

May I tell this story, Henry? Yes, please do. Well, they were going to have Leon Kompowski come back, but being a Prince imitator instead of a Michael Jackson imitator was going to be a season 5 episode written by Conan O'Brien. They sent Prince the script. Prince would do the voice, too. Exactly. Yeah, he was going to be a season 5 episode written by Conan O'Brien they sent Prince the script Prince would do the voice too he was going to be the guest star

they sent Prince the script and he sent back notes like I want to be wearing this on this page this on this page you're not on some of these pages what are you talking about it turns out he had a different script given to him by what people think was his chauffeur and he wanted the Simpsons to do that script

and not the script they sent him. So there could have been an episode written by Conan with Prince in season five. It never happened. If that chauffeur had never had that, like, inspiration to write a Simpsons fan script. I want to say it's not too late, but it totally is. I mean, he's still around.

You still see funny clips of Prince. I mean, if Conan O'Brien would write it now I might still buy it Yeah but the comparison isn't there Prince isn't as prolific It's so out of character

for Prince to be out of touch with you know anything happening in the world And it's nice that this episode is like the biggest celebrity that Simpsons ever had

disregarding the Beatles but it just treats the show as all based around it I mean Michael Jackson is the most famous person Oh sorry Maybe Paul McCartney is more famous Maybe Genghis Khan Brett had mentioned it show is all based around it i mean michael jackson is the most famous person oh sorry like because maybe paul mccartney's more famous well maybe gangas con brett had mentioned it's something

you said earlier that like michael jackson was huge just unbelievably huge and it wasn't just that he was huge is that he was still reclusive he didn't appear on other people's shows he would have a segment of 60 minutes where someone would interview him he wouldn't go on letterman or the tonight show he'd make his own things he would make his own things maybe come to award shows yeah that'd be it he'd be in music videos directed by the biggest directors in the universe but he never guest started anybody's shit until this and he was the kind of person who i mean we all remember like oh yeah black and white a music video will simulcast on mtv and major networks and everyone will watch it because like oh it's it's a new Michael Jackson video. Everybody stop.

We're all as a world going to watch this together. Yeah, it's not just that there was a video. There was no star of his magnitude. It was that he just didn't do other people's shows.

There's no other guest stars. I mean, Thriller ruled the world in 84. It was the biggest crossover thing ever. He wasn't black or white. He was just Michael Jackson. He was that famous. The fame level that, say, Kim Kardashian has now is nothing compared to what Michael Jackson has.

Nobody can achieve this level of fame anymore. Nobody can right now. It'll never happen again. There was a monoculture back then compared to now. It is possible to ignore Kim Kardashian. It was not possible to ignore Michael Jackson. Just from the sheer few outlets you had for entertainment. I thought so, too.

And then I started watching The People vs. O.J. Simpson. She's in the show as a teenager. They're all in there. Oh, right, because her I started watching The People vs. O.J. Simpson. She's in the show as like a teenager. They're all in there. Oh right, because her dad is a scumbag. Was a scumbag. Played by David Schwimmer. Juice. Coming soon, American Crimes. Talking American Crime Story. We'll be doing that in a lot fewer episodes.

But that was a great, that was a really hot opener episode. It's not a great episode. It has some funny jokes. I disagree. I think it's great. I had a great time re-watching it today. I think it's not a great episode. It has some funny jokes. I think it's great. I had a great time re-watching it today. I think it's just a little uneven is all. It's all built around a celebrity, not all the jokes.

Right, but as celebrity go, I felt like they distorted the whole idea, because even at this point in 91, the idea of a celebrity guest star was an old, hacky thing you do to get cheap ratings, and instead they're like, no, he's not even going to really be Michael Jackson

but it is and it isn't it was such a fun spin yeah I do like how the Simpsons used to treat guest stars instead of just being like Steve Buscemi's going to walk by for three seconds it always had to be you played somebody who wasn't you. Kim Basinger they very rarely had anybody who was playing

themselves at this point. Mel Brooks was one of the first ever. Well, no, Magic Johnson actually. And James Woods, I think. Like various Ringo Starr, right? Yeah, but they're great, but they're fleeting. They're not there the whole episode. The Kim Basinger one, though, is all. That one and the Mel Gibson one, for sure.

We'll get to it, maybe. Your donations. I have high blood pressure. I'm not going to make it. Season three is going to be so great, guys. I'm so excited. Thank you so much make it but season 3 is going to be so great guys I'm so excited thank you so much for listening every episode is going to be 50 minutes long yeah you're looking at an hour

of Talking Simpsons every week now maybe so yeah I've been Bob Mackey your host you can find me on the internet as Bob Server on Twitter be sure to read

US Gamer and Something Awful I write for both of those and I also do the Classic Gaming Podcast Retronauts that comes out every week go to retronauts.com or usgamer.net

or just search for Retronauts in your podcast machine and you'll find it. Everybody else, tell us what you do. I was just on that Ocarina episode. Yes, I love that one. And Lazer Time,

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retro TV blocks. I believe there's a Florida one that's going to be really good. There's an episode just about stupid Florida stuff. I want to hear that. Yeah. I'm excited.

You have a very special guest star on that one, speaking of special guests. And if you like Talking Simpsons, like weekly breakdowns that go week by week, we have 302010, a show that is, again, brought to you by our Patreon,

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And also our special season two wrap up, all exclusive, patreon.com slash lasertime. $5 a month or more. You get all that and a ton of more things and it really helps us out. That's right. We'll be back next week with a scathing look at politics. Later. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. I wish you love and goodwill. I wish you praise and joy. I wish you better than your heart desires. And your first kiss from a boy. Lisa, it's your birthday.

Happy birthday, Lisa. Lisa, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa. Yeah.