Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - The Homer They Fall With Kat Bailey

Episode Date: August 1, 2018

Our sports expert buddy Kat Bailey joins us for an episode steeped in boxing history! Homer's got a crazy idea that's somewhere in the middle where he'll be beaten up by hobos for money and then he ends up fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship! We explain all the history behind fan man, surgical 2X4s, Don King, and tons more in this week's glorious return to the shores of fistiana! This podcast is brought to you by VRV, the streaming network full of cartoons, anime and more. sign up for a free 30-day trial at VRV.co/WAC and help support Talking Simpsons! Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons!

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Ahoy, hoyoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, brought to you by the Nostalgia Licensing Corporation. I'm your host, Bob Mackie, a tramp with the energy of a hobo. And this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Henry Gilbert, also known as the Southern Dandy. That's what I've heard. Who else?

Kid Presentable, Cat Bailey. And today's episode is The Homer Dandy. That's what I've heard. Who else? Kid Presentable, Cat Bailey. And today's episode is The Homer They Fall. Hey, dude, he's ragging on your cord. Today's episode aired on November 10th, 1996. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh, my God. Oh, boy, Bobby. The Discovery Kids channel debuts on cable.

Black Street's No Diggity is at the top of the Billboard Top 100. And believe it or not, two days before this episode aired, Evander Holyfield gets a TKO victory over Mike Tyson in their decade-long awaited fight. I'm more interested in the Discovery Kids channel. And then a year later, Mike Tyson would bite his ears off. Yep, he definitely would do that. We'll talk about that right during this episode. But Discovery Kids channel, thanks to Channel Drift, as it's called, I'm guessing it's where they offload Dog the Bounty Hunter episodes

or some sort of Fear Factor marathon. My parents didn't have a fancy enough cable package to go up to the Discovery Kids level, but also it seemed like learning. I don't want to do that. The Learning Channel just became the Freaks Channel. I mean, it's an old joke, but no one wanted to learn. I miss liking cable because back in the day,

I would watch the History Channel and ESPN, and I'd be like, wow, this is all so great. Now I turn them on, and I was like, oh great. Now I turn them on and I was like, oh, why am I turning this on? This is like by mistake. Yeah, it's just all trash. Commercials. Paul stars for 50 hours on History Channel. Okay. That's a kind of history.

It's the history of trash. But yeah, that fight date, it makes me think it was intentional that they did this episode this weekend. They would know the date of that fight months in advance. So when they're programming, they could be like, why don't we do our boxing one the weekend

and Mike Tyson's biggest match in five years? I was going to say, I only paid attention to boxing in the mid to late 2000s because there was the middleweight champion of the world, question mark, Kelly Pavlik, was from Youngstown, Ohio. Now he's a horrible drunk with domestic abuse charges, but at the time, he was Youngstown's golden boy. That's most boxers.

See, Bob, you did care about Youngstown. Yes, and my friend Sarah, who's listening, got a great video of him about a decade ago doing karaoke drunk and falling off a stage it was the beginning of his fall from grace she really captured that meanwhile around that same time as that i was getting into i was following boxing more because a lot of my my best friend at the time he's uh filipino his whole family was living there and they were super into rising star manny pacquiao who uh now also has had

his own personal troubles as as a gay man i'm not into manny saying that i'm an abomination i'm not a fan of that he did do that yeah though then again i mean like what boxer isn't a monster it's really hard like even the i don't think evander holyfield is like particularly like he's he's had any like gaffes or said bad things. But he was like a serial womanizer. So not great if you're dating him. To be honest, I always mixed up Evander Holyfield with George Foreman. Because George Foreman was still boxing at this time, I think.

He didn't have a grill, though. That's the most important thing. He was like 40-something years old. Well, yeah. So what happened with Foreman was he was big in the 70s, very young. And then he took time off because he found religion. And just they convinced him, like, no, you should be a preacher. And then in the early 90s, like, come back.

And as the boxing commentator said, you lose your power last. Speed first. But he was always a power guy, so he could still fight on that level. What was his power level? Well, in fight, in Knockout Kings, it was pretty high. So, could he beat Mr. Satan?

Mr. Satan's all fake. That's true. Could he beat Mr. Dream? Mr. Dream is also made up. We were children of the 80s and Mike Tyson was an inescapable boxer to know. Even if you didn't follow boxing, my parents were going to get pay-per-view or hbo or showtime to watch it but mike tyson's punch out was an

unavoidable game of the 80s like it was one of the biggest games of the time i mean it really was and i only know sports people from either uh simpsons references or if they were on the cover of a video game uh before the playstation era so you know gordie howe and mike tyson cover of a video game before the PlayStation era. So, you know, Gordie Howe and Mike Tyson. Gordie Howe was on a video game cover? No, that's a Simpsons reference. Oh, yeah, sorry, sorry. That's right, yes. I know Gordie Howe.

I know Buster Douglas, of course, and his great career. Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino. All the greats. All the greats. When I was in daycare, when I was very young, we had an NES, and for the youngest kids, they would occasionally wheel it out. And we had two games on it, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and Super Mario Brothers. And everybody could beat Glass Joe, but we could never get past Von Kaiser, the second one.

That's the real testing ground. Yeah, that's where it jumps up to the next level of difficulty. Of course, Mike Tyson, well, he had some troubles after that game. That's why it is a Mr. Dream. Well, actually, Henry, I did a whole Retronauts About Punch-Out. You can listen to it. It turns out the licensing deal expired just before he got into trouble. So that was a convenient way for them to republish the game in a cheaper way

without associating themselves with Mike Tyson. So I believe the republishing of Punch-Out! as just Punch-Out! with no Mike Tyson happened before the rape trial and everything. So I just wanted to let everyone know that it's something that I had to learn. But it was also super convenient for Nintendo. It's cheaper, we no longer be associated with a rapist. The timing was perfect for them. I think that taught Nintendo a valuable lesson about not... I don't think they've done celebrity endorsements at least in the west no and at least

in a game form and they signed him this is super interesting they signed him right before he won his first major title at the age of 18 i believe the uh the president of nintendo at the time is it arakawa yeah uh the son-in-law of the Japanese CEO. So the president of Nintendo of America went to a boxing match with Mike Tyson and basically signed him there. Wow. Before he became the heavyweight champion of the world. Was he heavyweight? Yes. Okay.

What a great stroke of luck that was for Nintendo. That's amazing. And they never did anything like that again. Yeah. For listeners who are a little younger and maybe don't understand. They signed King Griffey Jr. And King Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball because they owned the Seattle Mariners at the time. Yes, so they owned him.

That wasn't easy to get. Yeah, they owned him. Well, you know, that reminds me. I think some younger listeners might not realize Mike Tyson's been a joke for the past 20 years. But 30 years ago, he was like the Michael Jordan of boxing. He was the most exciting boxer that had ever been seen. He was undefeated. His fights would be over in a round or two at most.

He seemed like this. He was called Iron Mike. He was this unstoppable machine. Go and watch YouTube clips sometime. It's really incredible. He basically just punches a guy and he just goes right down. And he was barely an adult then, too. He was in basically just punches a guy and he just goes right down. Yeah. And he was barely an adult then, too. He was like in his very early 20s. Which led to him being

a rather impressionable guy who made a lot of mistakes. Why so much rage? I will say he also came from a terrible upbringing and a terrible life on the streets where he almost died every day. So that'll shape you in a way. Yeah, yeah. But not that I want to make excuses for his life, no.

Interesting, though, in the Simpsons approach, 90s boxing, it was funny that they had characters from the early 90s that they had already created for boxing jokes in Lisa vs. The Eighth Commandment. Yeah, it was Tatum vs. What? He also appears in the 1984 Olympics. Yes, yeah. When Lisa's First Word, I want to say.

Yes, in Lisa's First Word, that's where Dreddor Tatum is. So Dreddor Tatum mostly has followed the Mike Tyson arc of being in the 84 Olympics, and then he was a major pay-per-view draw on cable or whatever. Yeah. Though that's also one of my favorite things about olympic boxing is how when the boxers who were in olympic boxing shit all over it like there was a a famous one of an irish boxer i think in the last olympics who lost on some bullshit points thing and then he immediately just like rips his shirt off and just goes it's all fucking bullshit it's all it's all fixed this is fucking that's

because uh boxing is fixed yeah oh yeah more than that's why boxing more than anything is not the sport that we know about it so yeah yeah so the guy was watson that's why we couldn't think of it because it's it's not funny it's not a joke i mean dredrick tatum is a fun name but it's not really a it's the renear it's a renear wolf castle it's is a fun name, but it's not really a parody. It's the Rainier Wolf Castle of the boxing world. It's evocative of what the parody is without being like a play on words or whatever. It's also funny to see him in this episode because he's such a season two design, especially with like his beard line. In season eight, they would never design a character like that. He's got a comic book guy beard.

Yeah. Just the line drawn on his face. So this episode written by Jonathan Collier, another one of his, directed by Mark Kirkland. Though it's also kind of a George Myrie one. Like he's a big boxing fan as well. Really? Okay. Yeah.

Was he part of the original string of Simpsons writers who were all gambling addicts? Yes. Okay. Yeah. One of the top. They really only wrote for the Simpsons to gamble on football which i love that mike reese hated it he's the one nerd in the group was like i'm gonna shit about football yeah i mean this is not liable by the way or slander because if you go back to the commentaries for the first four seasons all

they talk about is gambling on football and having having an office betting pool and and how excited they were like i saved the envelope that my money came in when I won it that year. Well, actually, Kat, we were talking beforehand. You have some football corrections for us from the previous episode. Oh, no. Oh, man. I was just going to say that the reason the Denver Broncos were the joke was because they had lost four Super Bowls

and the Dallas Cowboys were perennial winners. And also they had lost to your team. The Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs of 95. Yeah. That's true. The early 96,uars in the playoffs of 95. Yeah. That's true. But I know. Early 96, I believe. Okay.

I know I was right in that they won the next two Super Bowls, right? Because Wikipedia told me. You're correct, Bob. Thank you. Thank you. Well done. That was my knowledge. In this episode, Mark Kirkland draws a ton from, I'd say, especially Raging Bull, but

also a bit of Rocky. Yeah. Yeah. And even a little bit, I mean, you could argue a little bit of mike tyson's punch out yeah yeah there's some angles in there especially that are very tyson-y but it's and yeah this this really does dig into what 90s boxing was like holyfield and tyson especially they're the center of it but also you know riddick bow and lennox lewis guys like that who were lennox lewis was really rising So this was an interesting, 96 was an interesting time in that the Holyfield

Tyson fight finally happened. It was supposed to happen in 89, but then Tyson had his first loss in Japan at the Budokan. To Buster Douglas. Who got his own video game too. It's a bad game too. Yeah, Sega saw Buster

Douglas as the ultimate upstart. And, of course, Mike Tyson was Nintendo's guy, so they signed him immediately. We're all video game dorks, but it's important to note that to get a real kickstart in America, Sega signed Tommy Lasorda, Buster Douglas, Michael Jackson, Spider-Man. There's got to be somebody else, too. Bart Simpson was in the ads, though. They didn't really have an exclusive. He was not exclusive, but they really wanted to get celebrities on board. And then Buster Douglas immediately got

fat and never was unable to defend his title that he won from Mike Tyson. Yeah, pretty sad. And Holyfield would then would defeat Riddick Bowing at the title. In the meantime, when Holyfield thought he won the title and thought he'd finally face Tyson. And Tyson has his rape trial and he goes to jail. And so then everybody else, while Holyfield is champ, everybody's going like, well, yeah, you're just champ because Tyson isn't here. He'd kill you if he was here. You're a loser. You're a middleweight up at heavyweight.

You can't knock anybody out. There's a really great 30 for 30 ESPN documentary called chasing tyson all about this about how everybody gave holyfield shit until he beat tyson two days before this episode aired and people were fine like oh yeah okay he he is great i just had a boxing memory by the way oh my god just came to me uh so around this time i had a friend way into the simpsons and he was also way into boxing and he was the friend i would watch that Tyson-Hollyfield rematch fight, the famous ear-biting fight with a year later. But at the time we were both in high school and he would drag me

to a ton of high school boxing matches and it was fun because I'm like, these strong teenagers are beating each other up and not me. I get to watch them. So it was fun that way. But yeah, it's just weird to think of high school boxing. That seems illegal. I mean, frankly no one should be boxing. It seems like it I mean, frankly, no one should be boxing.

It seems like it just fucks you up. Nobody should be playing football either. That's true. It can't be more dangerous than high school football. I mean, you're just punching each other in the head. And in fact, this entire episode is essentially Homer gets whacked over the head or punched, which is an odd thing to watch in this day and age

because obviously we're a lot more concussion aware. But it's said he has a football helmet inside his head, so it's okay. He's got a CTE-proof skull. This is like four episodes after he was a circus freak, or not a circus freak, but getting cannonballs into the belly. So Homer's built like a tank.

You cannot hurt that man. He's a brick shithouse. I mean, sorry, brick hithouse. I wondered why nobody did body blows on him, but that's because his stomach is super strong too. Except Dreddrick Tatum can totally take him out. Yes. Well, I feel like they're saying that Dreddrick Tatum and Mike Tyson

can punch so hard they would break a football helmet. Mr. Armageddon. I mean, you don't want to mess with that guy. And yeah, it is also funny that this episode tries to play up the ridiculousness of the excesses of heavyweight boxing at the time and then it would only get crazier within a year the ear biting thing was the end of it this was the end of boxing in general like heavy when i say boxing i mean heavyweight boxing. Because three years later, it basically vanished from the mainstream consciousness. The Lennox Lewis kind of generation was the end.

Well, yeah. I mean, there was no talent anymore. Because why would you box when, I don't know, you could do literally anything else? Yeah. Well, they lose a lot of people to MMA and other stuff, too. They just don't. Or, I don't know football basketball other sports and that boxing but it also it hurt boxing because in a very old school sense there were always multiple

weight classes but a prize fight is when the largest guys fight each other and i think it was only thanks to like the promotional abilities of oscar de la joya that people came to accept middleweight or lower weight fights as major fights so you could have oscar de la joya or manny pacquiao or um the and one super shithead just fought conor mcgregor oh right that guy oh yeah mayweather mayweather yeah they're all awful people if you when you dig into it. Oscar De La Hoya seems like a good one. I think people, maybe even people our age, have a struggle to conceive of a time when boxing, not only was boxing in the mainstream, the heavyweight champion of the world was like a super celebrity. Like Muhammad Ali was in comic books.

He was fighting Superman. He was everywhere. To be the heavyweight champion of the world was essentially to be LeBron James. You were everywhere. Yeah, and even refs and announcers would be famous, like Mills Lane and Michael Buffer, who's in this episode. And this was the time in which Celebrity Deathmatch was a series on TV. And it was based on boxing. It was not based on wrestling, which was also huge.

Mills Lane was the ref in that show, and there was a michael buffer style character as one of the commentators yeah and that the the mills lane was cast on that show to be himself and got his own judge show of the judge lane so because he was the tough but fair ref who tells people knock that shit off he looks like hans molman and R.I.P.? I mean, when you see those clips of the ear biting, you're just like, Jesus Christ. That's one of the saddest bits in the documentary to be in the Chasing Tyson one

because they make it very clear of like, it's not just gross that he's like maiming a person live in the ring, but it's him admitting like, well, I can't win. So I'm going gonna get disqualified i want to point out mills lane uh mills beeling the third is not dead listen everybody all right let's play me knocking on wood let's play the anti-death jingle i ain't dead yet he's 80 years old folks and this episode goes live soon so we're out of the clear

i think so we're in the clear we're in the clear we're in the clear we're out of the clear but i guess let's get into the clear. We're in the clear. We're out of the clear. But I guess let's get into the episode, then. We start at the mall. Ladies and gentlemen, the Springfield Mall, in conjunction with Nostalgia Licensing Corporation, is proud to present the Stars of Bonanza. Thank you. I just wish Ben and Hoss and Little Joe and Hop Sing and Sheriff Roy and all your favorites could be alive today to see this wonderful turnout.

You know, on the series, we were always trying to kill the Cartwrights. But it looks like Father Time took care of that for us right am i right folks this sucks weren't there three indians last year so bonanza a real loser of a series only ran for 14 years it's no gun smoke which the Simpsons beat, what, last year? Yes. No Simpsons. Yeah. Simpsons passed Gunsmoke with its 636th episode in April 29.

It went on that long? Yep. Al Jean does not count anime, and he will never beat anime. Boo. Boo, Al Jean. How can you beat Naruto or One Piece? Oh, One Piece is at 800. Naruto died around, I don't know, 400.

And now it's Boruto. Yeah. Well, and then there's Sazae-san, which we've been told by people also repeats many episodes, which shouldn't all be counted as new ones. So it's not really over 1,000. It repeats episodes because the creator, the mad inventor of Sazae-san, says no home versions ever. So it's like, you can remake an episode from 1987, no one will know.

That is wild. This really captures how you can do a, it really captures the spirit of a mall show, like seeing a show in a mall. Yeah, I mean, malls are dead. Do these things still happen? I feel like- I kind of think they have to happen somewhere.

I feel like in my hometown, they have the Mall of America, and I know that they have those kinds of events right in that little rotunda there that doesn't count it's the mall of america i feel like this is before the age of like uh everything has a con there's like 95 horror cons if you're if you are horror movie adjacent you can go to 30 cons and make a living if you were killed in one movie that no one saw that is your life and your job now well these uh bonanza native americans it also reminds me of when i say cons i've gone to like for example the star trek con in vegas i went to a couple years ago if you are still alive and we're in the original series you got a space there they're like come on in i don't care who you were if you

were killed off like we're gonna put you right there and i have to wonder i was trying to look up the cast members of bonanza but i went to imdb and apparently there are like 1600 cast members of the show but i have to wonder if this is like f troop in gun smoke where the native american characters are played by jewish and italian men because you can't hire a native person i do believe hop singh was not played yes i didn't say asian men but Hop Sing, I did see him. That was a Chinese actor. Okay, well, good, good. I'm thinking of Marlo Thomas played an Asian woman on a show like that.

Well, this Bonanza joke too is funny. It got ruined for me by my mom when we were watching it when it was new. Because when they start by saying the original stars of Bonanza, my mom's like, they're all dead. What are they talking about? Lorne Green is dead. Bonanza was before my time, so I never really got it. And even now, I don't know that much about it.

But I do know that I did go to a mall show similar to this in the mid-90s. Oh. But it was for Star Trek. Oh. And it was a mall exhibition. And they had the bridge of the Enterprise and they had games from the show. This was the 90s when Star Trek was still pretty big.

Next Gen, DS9 was a thing. And Jimmy Doohan was there to sign autographs. Oh, how nice. So whenever I see this, I immediately think of that. This was at the Mall of America? Yes, it was the Mall of America. As an aside, Bonanza almost appeared on the screen of the Enterprise in a particular episode.

Really? Yes. I had assumed they filmed on Bonanza sets in one of their episodes. Well, there was going to be an episode where they went back in time, and that episode did happen, but they had a scene where the crew is watching Bonanza on the view screen. Oh, okay. What was the one I'm thinking of where they're all in the Old West and Chekhov's trying to make it with a lady?

That episode would have been called, third season episode, Spectre of the Gun. That was the reusing every old set season. Yeah. What's happening? Where there are two famous historical clans and the Enterprise crew is doomed to die unless they can find out a way to beat the

the erps that's right yeah i like i like the one where they had to find their way off the dragnet set uh so uh also r.i.p harlan ellison all right listen to him cantankerous old jerk he was a cantankerous old jerk and he said some terrible things to lots of people. But if you want to hear him at his best, check out the game I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, where it's based on his short story, which is great. And he voices the malevolent AI in the game, which I think he eventually sued James Cameron over, because the story's about an AI who took over the world. And now he's torturing seven people who he keeps alive just to like humiliate and like make them feel pain that uh i was just thinking of another thing you should look up his is his uh rant called pay the writer which is yes

from one of his documentaries which is specifically him complaining about babylon 5 that he was he was interviewed for some ancillary stuff for babylon 5 before the show came out and so they're putting out the ds and they're asking him, can we use this footage on the DVD to advertise? He's like, oh sure, just pay me. And they're like, what? I want royalties on every one, 5%. He's just saying like, well then fucking pay me.

And they're like, oh, do you do your job for free? Like pay the fucking writer. It's a great rant. He's a very good ranter. He's, you know, there's bad stuff about him too.'s a great rant. He's a very good ranter. He's, you know, there's bad stuff about him too, but what a ranter.

So the thing about the Bonanza scene, I was reading the review by the AV Club about this episode, and they see it as the Bonanza scene as the thesis statement

for the episode where they say it's nostalgia, past glories, ghosts of the past going on with this episode, which I thought was an interesting interpretation. So perhaps we can kind of look at it as we go on and see.

I don't buy that at all, but sure. Well, I mean, I think Mo is kind of the main character of this episode, with a lot of respect. You know what? Yeah, you're right. He's living in the past. You've convinced me. Just like the Bonanza guys. Wow, that was fast.

Dang, we can shut down this episode. Let's go home. Folded like Superman on laundry day. I love them telling that joke that everybody's reacting poorly to it before they even get to the punchline. So it's like, you guys gotta,

you guys need to bail on this joke. I mean, it was in poor taste. It was very much in poor taste. Aren't they, they're dead. Isn't that hilarious? Yes, Father Time took care of it for us. Well, I mean, I'm sure they're kind of bitter if they are Native American actors. I was looking at episode titles, and they all just have the word savage in them somewhere. It's like the brutal savage.

It's all coming into focus. Yeah, that's why they didn't replay it in our youth. So the Simpsons walk away in disgust. I like that they're all disgusted at them, too, when they all walk away and uh so they head to a sharper image which you know it's funny we're recording this out of order we've already recorded our one for millhouse divided and in that they go to william sonoma so it's interesting like i got these jokes kind of mixed up a little bit i was like wait is this the is this the melon baller joke coming? Or, oh, okay, this is the world's best jacket joke.

I've never been to a real sharper image. I've only seen the catalog on airplanes. I've never seen a sharper image before. I know I've walked by one. Maybe as a kid, I went to one just to sit in their vibrating chairs. The 90s were the era of the vibrating chair. Check out Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes

for more of that. The idea of the gadget shop is a real throwback, I feel like, where you would mix in kind of high-tech gadgets with weirdo things, like the world's best jacket, as you were saying. I mean, now they would probably, what, go into an Apple store or something like that? Yeah, it's just all too samey.

You're not trying to buy personality with stupid purchases. You're just trying to buy personality with stupid purchases. You're just all buying the same tech bing bong. I got to say, though, the nose hair trimmer is something I swear by. And guys out there, if you're over 25, you got to trim those nose hairs. No one's going to tell you this, but you got to do it. They love a good knickknack store joke, and they have one in Homersphobia as well. Yeah, yeah.

It's like it's a font for good jokes. I kind of want that scale from a russian submarine that's yeah and a suede briefcase case i like the world's coolest jacket yes though it's not it's cool in the way for homer to think it's cool but it's got like elvis and marilyn monroe on it yeah it's like a weird letterman jackets slash 50s nostalgia thing i do remember dad's wearing a lot of those. They're kind of like the TV show jackets you would get if you worked on a TV show. They're like the puffy jackets.

Yeah. Yeah. They remind me of the people who would wear a Top Gun jacket unironically just around, which I've seen. I have seen people wearing a Top Gun jacket unironically. I like more the look of wearing a NASCAR jacket of famous brands, like the M&M's NASCAR jacket. So you're really just wearing an M&M's jacket. Well, that World's Greatest Jacket, it reminds me of the Kids in the Hall sketch where the guy didn't sell his soul.

He sold his jacket to the devil for hair that grew pots. Yeah, that was Scott Thompson. Yeah. A great jacket has to be grown, not created. But that's when we get the ultimate belt. And speaking of Star Trek conventions. Yes, finally, I would like to return your quote unquote ultimate belt. I see.

Do you have receipt? Quote unquote, sir. No, I do not have receipt. I won it as a door prize at the Star Trek convention. Although I find their choice of prize highly illogical, as the average trekker has no use for a medium-sized belt oh whoa a fat sarcastic star trek fan you must be a devil with the ladies hey i oh gee i hate to let you down casanova but uh no receipt no return i'll give you four bucks for it. Very well.

I must hurry back to my comic book store where I dispense the insults rather than absorb them. It was a great pairing to have the two most sarcastic characters in the scene together. I can't believe it never happened before. Both voiced by Hank Azaria, too. And Bronson voice wins because he's on his territory. He's been sarcastic for longer. Yeah, he's on his territory. He's been sarcastic for longer. Yeah, he's on his turf.

That makes total sense. Just them being sarcastic to each other, quote, unquote, sir. And the Star Trek door prize. I like that he adds that it's highly illogical. And as a heavier individual, I also feel that way when I'm at a convention. I'm like, you're at a comic convention and you're giving away medium shirts? Like, come on. I used to work in the games industry and all the shirts started at XL and I'm

an S to M man. So I was like, I can't wear any of these ugly t-shirts. Meanwhile, for me, it's all men's shirts and they're all extra large. Women don't work in video games. And if they do, we should chase them out. Like, here, take them. No, absolutely not. This is terrible. It's a sleep shirt.

Come on. I've got like 20 of those. Yeah. And a comic book guy has never looked more defeated. Yeah. It's like, ugh. Comic book guy defeated is a great scene. He is your prototypical nerd who is very used to being able to dispense extremely sarcastic insults for anybody who's trying to one-up him in Star Trek or whatever.

But when he goes into the real world, as he is right now, he is defeated utterly. And it's amusing. These guys who are like the lords of their own domain in a comic shop because it's like, hey, I'm the dealer here. You need to be nice to me if you want to buy your comic books. I'm not going to lie. I actually kind of understand where comic book guy is coming from because i spend all of my time talking about nerdy

things and gaming and everything just the other day i went to a barbecue with real people oh god and i had to talk to them and i was like they're like what do you do i like i work in video games so you make video games awkward silence and then we moved on to whatever the heck they were talking about which was extremely boring. I would think you've at least, you've got the avenue of sports. Yes, but these are all women who are drinking cocktails. And I'm not saying that women don't like sports. This is not true.

But these were women who didn't like sports. Okay. Yeah. You're in a tougher situation there. Yes, just slightly. The Simpsons will be right back. Now, look, you don't want to get into a boxing match here. Let's just listen to the plugs, okay okay thank you so much for listening to our

rambunctious pugilist of a podcast this week and we're supported at patreon.com slash talking simpsons if you sign up there you can hear next week's episode right now it's available right now ad free in a week early for all the folks who sign up and that same goes for our sister podcast what a cartoon where we go through a different cartoon each week in the talking simpsons manner why we've done episodes like batman the animated series king of the hill big o cowboy bebop and tons more you should check it all out also on the patreon.com slash talking simpsons five dollar feed and we've got several more really cool interviews coming soon that we're working on in behind the scenes look forward to them and you'll only be able to hear them in full at patreon.com slash talking simpsons a sign up there help

support me and bob doing this full-time it pays for our trips to la to record tons of cool podcasts you'll be hearing so so soon so sign up at patreon.com talking simpsons today hey folks if you signed up at patreon.com talking simpsons you may have heard our newest interviews with the folks like mike reese who just wrote a book springfield confidential about his 30 years on the show if you listen to our interview you only got the smallest fraction of the stories that he shares in that book and you can hear it for free if you go to audible trial.com slash talking simpsons if you sign up for audible you get a free audiobook on us and you can use that credit on mike reese's springfield confidential it's an audiobook version of his awesome book read by mike himself in his inimitable tone it's

an easy way to support the show and get a free audiobook for you troubles all the same at audibletrial.com talking simpsons one more time audibletrial.com slash Talking Simpsons. So Bart buys the belt off of him. It is a pretty cool belt. It's a tactical pants retaining system. I just want to observe that the comic book guy was trying to squeeze into a belt for a 10-year-old boy. Yeah, it fits Bart so well. Though Bart is a little heavier than most 10-year-old boys, I guess.

I never think of him as heavy. I know that he's supposed to be heavier, but I look at him and he looks fairly normal. Sometimes he looks normal, and other times if they zoom in on his gut, you're like, I think you're... He's going to be fat when he gets older, yeah. All the adult and child male torsos in this series are just pairs. Yeah. I mean, the joke was Ned ripping off his shirt to reveal he's ripped when he has the same Homer body. Same with Willie. Yeah.

Same deal. What I love about Bart's belt, it kind of reminds me of the spy kit that Milhouse has. Just those things you buy as a little kid where you're like, this is going to turn me into Batman. Like, this is the same thing Batman has. And instead, it's a bunch of useful things on a belt, I suppose. But you're not going to use them in everyday life. So it's just kind of clunky and unneeded. Did you have a utility belt, Henry?

No, no. I think I had a Swiss Army knife of some kind. She's making kind of clunky and unneeded. Did you have a utility belt, Henry? No, no. I think I had a Swiss Army knife of some kind. She's making fun of your cord. A simogramnometer? Like, don't wait, sigphonomometer? Sphignomometer. Yes. Sort of a joke on sphincter.

I guess, yes. But it's also a blood pressure thing. Okay, really? Well, that pump, it's the little pump thing. Is that an actual medical term? At least according to Google. Okay, I thought it was a butt joke,

but now my mind is clear. It's not a butt joke. It could also be a butt joke. The way he laid into that joke, I thought it was a butt joke. Well, also, to me, it sounded a little bit like how Nancy is just carefully pronouncing something.

Like a word she's unfamiliar with. Some fucking nerd wrote it down. She has to read it. All these Harvard dorks giving them weird words. And so another really well-observed thing is when a bully tries to bargain with you. Like, as a picked-on nerdy kid, I'm used to just a bully being a bully. But you'd also get sometimes the sideways thing of like oh hey could we trade baseball cards and then you find out this is not a trade you're going

into with this bully it is it is just another way to hand something over threat of violence is implicit in this transaction and that's exactly what bart is going through as well when jimbo wants to trade him his cord and i just love the look of his ugly cord and them ragging on his cord. I do like the turn signal ruse works on the bullies. I do love that. They can't stop. I also like the animation of Bart shaking his butt back

when he's got his turn signals around. He's real proud of that. What was he trying to accomplish by pressing help? Did he hope that help would actually come? Yeah, I think so. I guess he assumed it would be more useful than just the thing going, help, help, help. Yeah, same with his emergency

thing, which is just a parachute. He would turn into Batman at that moment. Can you read the sign? Call the police! And then they wail on him like on David Merkin level of wailing. I love the verb wail, to wail on someone.

It shows up later in a newspaper headline in this episode. Hey, Dad. Looking good, son. Hey, what happened to your belt? Some bullies beat me up and took it. Son, there's only one thing punks like that understand, squealing. You've got to squeal to every teacher and every grown-up you can find. Coming to me was a good start.

But then they'll just beat me up even worse. Yes, they are a clever bunch. I know. I'll squeal for you to their parents. That's for telling me how to raise my lousy kid. This is for the crummy life I've had to live. The thing is, I loved that, Felton Hey, something's wrong with this guy He's not falling down

Fun's over, fellas If you're gonna beat up my friend and my bod It's a two-drink minimum I don't know if we saw the parents of Jimbo Dolph and Kearney after this According to my research, I don't think they did show up. The one and only time they ever appear. They follow the Van Houten School of Character Design in that the parents are a clone of the child. How old do you think Kearney's dad is?

Yeah, I was going to say, I'd say like 70. Well, and also, one of them just sounds like Kirk. It didn't hit me until listening to this. That's right. It's like Kirk Van Houten, not James T. Kirk. Yeah. One of them has an eye patch. Yeah, they've had some harsh lives, those bully parents.

Well, one of them, I mean, Jimbo's wearing an electrical cord, so I mean, I don't want to rag on anybody who lives ragging on his cord. I don't want to rag on anybody who maybe has a less fortunate upbringing or is clearly impoverished, but jeez. If you're listening to a podcast, you can afford a belt.

I'll go that far. Or just steal one from Goodwill. They're not going to care. They've got so many belts. So Jimmo's listening to a podcast? What? I'm just extrapolating this. I also love, it's really understated,

but after he gets hit with a pool cue, Homer just goes wall-eyed and does not move the rest of that scene. Like he just, definitely that pool cue effed him up, but he's not unconscious. He just kind of stops. And Moe was showing a small amount of loyalty to Homer. It's like, there's a, what, a three-drink minimum if you're going to be?

Oh, two-drink, okay. Homer's one of his most loyal customers. It's true. I mean, probably Jimbo Dolphin Kearney's parents can't really afford to drink there. I mean, they have crummy lives and they're building and buying their kids extension cord belts. So probably Mo's just, his loyalty is the almighty dollar. Well, that's also Mo's trusty shotgun we got to see, which he will use to literally rob Homer. He used it in his funk dancing for self-defense class in season five.

So he's had it before and uh it's really i i love just the the foley work on the bottle of gin that he's wiping homer down with there it's pretty good and the i also just love all the animation they have in this episode of homer getting punched in the face just like his he just takes it he doesn't put his hands up he doesn't react to it it's just like splat anyway Anyway, splat. There's not even a lizard brain reaction to protect your eyes and all of your important face organs. Yeah, which, by the way, folks, even if you did have Homer Simpson syndrome, Homer's face, like he'd have no teeth left after just one of those boxing matches, even with a teeth guard.

Guy's built like a tank. He can take a cannonball in the gut. It's true. Even though he has not exercised since grade school. But yes, Mo makes quite a tank. You can take a cannonball in the gut. It's true. Even though he has not exercised since grade school. But yes, Mo makes quite a discovery. The only thing a loser like me is good for is taking beatings. There you go. That's the spirit.

Homer, I've seen prize fighters couldn't take a punch half as good as you. You know, boxing might be right up your alley. Really? Oh, please. It's the good Oh, please. It's the good life, Homer. Some of these boxes, they eat steak and lobster and salad bar all in a single meal. Dressing?

Their choice. Wow. You really think I could do it? Well, I don't know. Are you man enough to test every one of your limits? Yes. And are you man enough to throw a punch should the opportunity arise? Yes. And are you man enough to give me a 60 your limits? Yes. And are you man enough to throw a punch should the opportunity arise? Yes. And are you man enough to give me a 60% cut?

Yes. I'll take it. Woo-hoo! Moe's just ripping him off. 60%. That's insane. I looked it up. Legally in America,

33% is the most a boxing manager can take. That seems like too much still. Well, and then the promoter gets their piece. This is why boxers go broke, like in almost all cases. And you need a posse. Athletes go broke in general. It's just a thing. Yeah, that's another great 30 for 30 called broke.

It was the first 30 for 30. Oh, it was? It was just athletes standing around in front of a blue screen and saying, this is why I went broke. For our listeners, are these available anywhere streaming? They were on Netflix for a while. You can find them around there. There's also just the Blu-ray collection that's really great too.

Maybe try Amazon. Yeah, try Amazon. Netflix, I watched Broke and Chasing Tyson on Netflix. They might still be there, but also Differs from Region, all that good stuff. I love in Broke, everybody has fun things and on Netflix. They might still be there, but also differs from region and all that good stuff. I love in Broke, everybody has fun things except for Curt Schilling

who's just like, I've tried to make a video game. He's a piece of shit. Oh, he sucks. Fuck him, man. He fucking defrauded. I defrauded Rhode Island. Yeah, he's also a horrible bigot

and you can read what he says online. It's fine. Look it up. It's fun. He had one bloody sock and do not look it up.'s fun uh he's he had one bloody sock and yeah don't do not look it up speaking of boxers who went broke i remember reading in a manny pacquiao was running out of money story it's that he so manny pacquiao was like homeless for part of

his childhood like living out of boxes until he found boxing yeah uh that was almost like an xavier renegade angel quote but a box factory uh but once he became a big time boxer and he had all this money if he sees anybody's home especially in the philippines the story was that he would just empty his pockets for them like oh i know what it's like i have to and he just promises money to everybody and then he had to hire like a bodyguard to just tell him like to just keep people away from him who would ask for money because he would give it away which like hey that's nice like good for him and then later became a senator in the philippines oh yeah well he can do i mean he just owns the country of the phil he does whatever he wants there he is the

easily the biggest star they've probably ever had in that country. Meanwhile, Mike Tyson also went broke at one point. Yes. I think I pointed this out on a previous episode, but Mike Tyson had a mansion in, it says here, Southington, Ohio, which is not far from where I grew up. So it's weird that these crazy rich people build mansions in Ohio. In fact, I mean, he's very rich. I don't know if he lives in a mansion, but Dave Chappelle lives in Yellow Springs,

Ohio, which is just a... Is it a tech shelter or something? It's just a quaint hippie town. I don't know. Where no one can find him. I see. It's where he can go get buff. He's real buff. Based on San Francisco prices, I feel like I could probably buy a mansion in Ohio. Yeah, I also... It's true. It's true. You know, we were talking about childhood

boxers. I totally forgot that I lived in Atlanta for three years of my childhood, right when Evander Holyfield was getting big. And he was the talk of the town. He was an Atlanta native, I believe. And so I remember one day, for Atlanta listeners out there, there's a fast food joint called The Varsity, which was at one time the world's biggest drive-in. And I liked it it it was good hot dogs and fried peach pies but then one day fried peach pies yeah it's like it's like a way higher quality mcdonald's apple pie except with peach in it because it's georgia um but and so

one day like we were going to go there but the entire block was shut down because evander holyfield was making an appearance at the varsity it was he was that big in atlanta like he was internationally evander holyfield didn't have anything on mike tyson but in atlanta he was bigger than he was the peach of atlanta and they called him and i also i isn't it weird how this scene ends with a bell ringing? It's so odd. I feel like it wasn't there in the script, but it was there to sweeten that joke at the end. Yeah, and they're like, we got to end this act. What makes this act over?

A ding? The letting you know that the fight has begun here. Letting us know that Homer has gotten another job. It's the Homer new job bell. Or is this a recreational thing? It's almost like he's joining a rec league. It is a job. Hobos.

He's got to travel, right? I mean, travel to Moe's to fight hobos. I mean, he's probably, he finishes up work, and then every Wednesday he goes and fights another hobo at Moe's Tavern. Moe's Tavern has F-level boxing rings, and it also has, what was it, a panda smuggling operation? Yeah, in Wales. And what else has Moe's Tavern

played host to? Russian Roulette. Let's see here. Well, in the future, they'll have virtual pool and virtual darts. Oh, and Bronco machine, a bucking Bronco machine that he got instead of cable. And a panic room.

Oh, in the panic room, yes. I was going to say that, I mean, given that Mo is, you guys have observed in the past that anything that is too low level for Fat Tony to be doing in terms of organized crime goes to Mo. And so in that light, it totally makes sense that he would be hosting illegal boxing. Yeah, I mean, the mafia would be fixing the games. Mo would be hosting the games. There's no way this is licensed. Oh, no. Certainly not.

It's literally bum fights. And we've said before, Moe is the most pathetic man in Springfield, but though in this one, Moe gets some more flavor to his story, which it doesn't undo

him being in The Little Rascals, but it would seem that he transitioned from The Little Rascals straight into boxing. We got fired from The Little Rascals for for beating up the kid and some boxing promoter went hey kid you got you got it i like that little rascals joke but it makes no sense

we can throw that out but i do like how uh so we talk about it so much but oakley and weinstein they love explaining uh the lore of this universe they love so much but this is sort of how like this is how the this is the story of how Moe became ugly. It's like, this is why this character is so hideous to look at. His face was beaten repeatedly. Which doesn't fit with Moe trying to be an actor and trying out for a soap opera that he didn't get when he gets a face change in Big Moley.

They overwrote so much of the road. That metaphor sucks, by the way. They overwrote the road. They overwrote it. They rode all over that road. That metaphor sucks, by the way. They overwrote the road. They overwrote it. They rode all over that road. But yes, the story of Kid Mo. You used to be a boxer just like me? Yup. They called me Kid Gorgeous.

Later on it was Kid Presentable. Then Kid Gruesome. And finally Kid Mo. Hey, what's this? Ah, that's my old spit bucket. Yeah, I've been meaning to empty that out you know lucius sweet he's one of the biggest names in boxing he's exactly as rich and as famous as don king and he looks just like him too yeah he was my manager back when i was gorgeous

everybody wanted a piece of me but somehow i just never made it to the big time why not? because I got knocked out 40 times in a row that plus politics, you know, it's all politics lousy democrats I mean, Homer always goes back to the democrats he's always mad at them you can really sense the viscosity of the fluid in that bucket

it's not just water, you can really hear it sloshing around also, I just got the joke Homer saying, you're a boxer just like me. Homer has not even boxed yet. I love that line. Yeah, I just got it that it's a joke. He's stealing valor from Mo and just like, oh, we're both boxers. That's same with like, if you did one open mic night as a stand-up, you're like, hey, we're both stand-ups to Jerry Seinfeld.

I did that as a joke once to a friend of the show I'll call him, Mike Drucker, who's a really cool guy on Twitter and funny. But I met him once and I said, like, you know, I've done some open mic nights, so I know exactly what your career is like. And then I said, I'm just kidding. But it did give me, doing two open mics gave me an incredible new appreciation for stand-ups that I didn't already have. I mean, we perform our Talking Simpsons live shows, but we also have other people's jokes that are better than ours to tell. We get to sit down behind a table. It's nice and legal. But Lucious Sweet, let's talk about him.

I love, it made me laugh the second I saw it as a kid, because you look at him, you're like, well, that's Don King. You all know it's Don King. But lots of shows would have done this joke of just showing making up a dude who looks like don king not name him that because then you'd get sued by don king but in this show they outright say aloud he looks and talks exactly like don king i love it i don't think i've seen this kind of joke before this, where I mean, like every series, even The Simpsons would do their parody character. There's been so many to date, like Rainer Wolfcastle and characters like that.

But this is the first time they're hanging a lantern on the fact that this is our parody of Don King. And even the characters in the show know it's a Don King alike. But I also love that in this world, Don King does exist. And everybody's like, well, this is Lucious Sweet, who is basically his doppelganger in the world of The Simpsons. Stealing Don King does exist and everybody's like, well, this is Lucious Sweet who is basically his doppelganger in the world of The Simpsons. Stealing Don King's bit. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger also exists in the world of The Simpsons.

It's true. Yeah, I hate that, by the way. We've talked about it. We've talked quite a lot about that. So, you know, Don King, apparently they wanted to have Don King in this episode, but he turned down the part. That fucker will do anything. That's crazy.

I assumed he would have a sense of humor about himself. Well, he cashes in on it because he never saw anything he didn't want to cash in on. Mike Tyson once said he's a bad man. He'd kill his mother for a dollar. I think he would. I heard another story about him. Somebody saying if you shake his hand while wearing rings, you got to take back your hand real fast to make sure you still got all your rings and your fingers he's covered in rings i mean it was a really a tragic thing because mike tyson had kind of a father figure you know he had

custom auto and he had other guys uh kevin rooney and a lot of people attribute those guys to his rise right getting him off the streets turning him him into a boxer, teaching him certain kind of tactics and everything. And then Customato died, and Kevin Rooney, he eventually fired. And it was kind of almost a battle for Mike Tyson's soul that Don King ultimately won. For the worse. By the mid-'90s, I mean, Mike Tyson was on drugs. It was an ugly scene.

I don't want to give all the blame to Don King, but he was a bad influence. I'm catching up with Don King now, and I'm kind of shocked. Still alive. Do we want to play the stay away death thing? Sure. He kind of sucks, though, but whatever. Jim, I ain't dead yet.

He did support Obama. That's true, but on September 21st, 2016, King caused controversy when introducing Donald Trump at a campaign event. He flipped at a black church in Cleveland by using the N-word, seemingly by accident. Whoa. I remember that now, but that was like one of, there's just been so many scandals with that guy, not Don King, that it's hard to remember them all, but I do remember that now. We didn't mention the two murders, but there are two murders. I mean, he murdered people, too. That's what Don King, that it's hard to remember them all, but I do remember that now. We didn't mention the two murders, but there are two murders.

I mean, he murdered people, too. That's what Don King did. That was in his past. And yeah, now he'll just, I mean, he'll appear on anything, and he'll just, he'll give you the Don King experience. He'll say the things you like. He loves waving around little American flags. That's right.

Did he say Only in America a lot? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I think that was the name of his book, I think. And yeah, the story of Kid Moe is that he was just a completely failed boxer. Like 40 knockouts in a row, then you're not a professional boxer.

You're nobody. You're a stranger. So do you have the scene at the kitchen table? Why, yes, I do. Okay. I was thinking it could be line of the episode because I love this Marge line. Cool.

That's the do. Okay. I was thinking it could be line of the episode because I love this Marge line. Cool. That's the joke. Homer, of all the crazy ideas you've had, this one ranks somewhere in the middle. You're 38 years old. You don't know how to box and you haven't gotten any exercise since grade school. Before you even consider this, I insist you consult a doctor. No problem. A competent doctor. No problem. A competent doctor! Don't!

Well, sir, you more than meet every one of this state's requirements to box, wrestle, or be shot out of a cannon. That's all we get for living in a state founded by circus freaks. You have an absolutely unique genetic condition known as Homer Simpson Syndrome. Oh, why me? Don't worry, it's quite beneficial. Your brain is cushioned by a layer of fluid one-eighth of an inch thicker than normal. It's almost as if you're wearing a football helmet

inside your own head. Why, I could wallop you all day with this surgical 2x4 without ever knocking you down. But, I have other appointments. I love the surgical two by four. Also, an important, more Simpsons lore, Homer is now 38 years old.

So I'm not as old as Homer yet. Not yet, but... So time has advanced. No, time has not advanced. The writers were getting older and they were uncomfortable with Homer being 36. So I believe the last time his age was stated was in Homer the Vigilante,

where he says, 36 years ago, a woman gave birth to Homer Simpson, blah, blah, blah. So that was the first time, I think in a long time, they said his age. But since then, he's now 38. He might be 39 after this. I think, I don't think they've put him at 40. Well, if an episode aired in 1991,

he was 18 in 1974, then that would be 17 plus 18. So he was 35 in the way we was, or 35-ish in that range. I mean, I'm glad I'm not Homer's age, but I am Jay Sherman's age now, and I find that horrifying. I mean, I didn't age as badly as he did, but how can Jay Sherman be 36? I mean, Homer Simpson aged real bad, too. That's true. You've aged horribly. Oh, that's Abe.

But it's in the Simpson genes. They're going to all age horribly. And speaking of Abe, I wonder why he's at there. I feel like there's a deleted joke, because otherwise Abe Simpson is not at dinner with these characters. There's got to be some cut scene with him talking about his history with being a boxing like coach or something because he's just a sort of there at the end helping homer and i feel like there should have been like

a fun a fun rambling story about absolutely there should have been some flashback to him being a 20s era boxing i think uh is it in this episode where there's a cut scene where he's talking about his history with boxing and he was like, they used to call me the pile driver for unrelated reasons. Oh, I think that's right. That's a hemorrhoid joke, so maybe that is a scene they cut. I think they just needed somebody else to be there in his

corner. Mo needs to talk to somebody. There's almost always multiple people and yeah, Mo needs to talk to somebody. Homer needs to have a cut guy in his corner for one thing, but that's getting ahead of ourselves. I wanted that one to be in the episode because I love Margie's approximation of the series. The writers aren't too full of themselves.

They're like, you know what? This episode's somewhere in the middle. It's not our best. It's not our worst. Going to space is a much crazier thing Homer's done. And this is a very similar conversation to when they had the in Homerpalooza. Oh, yeah. Where Marge had no say in it. Homer's just like, well, we're

different people, Marge. I'm doing this. That's the weird thing is we think about this as early Simpsons, but by this time we are in year eight, which is a long time for a show to be on. And the writers were on the point of doing meta commentary about the show. I mean, wow. Yeah, and also it felt

like a meta moment where Marge knew he'd go to Dr. Nick because he just did that in, say, King Size Homer so she's like, no, you have to go to Hibbert. It can't be Dr. Nick. And in fact, Dr. Nick appears in this episode. Yeah, I was glad. Kill him! Kill him! And also, continuity

watch as well. But I didn't see no crayon on Homer's brain in that essay. Oh, come on. That doesn't count. I hate that crayon. I really do. I'm not a fan of that crayon. We'll get to it.

We'll get to it. Well, continuity watch. I'm sure women have been in Moe's bathroom at some point in this episode. In this series. At the very least, Roz has been. Not Roz. Well, actually, multiple women were there when it was Flaming Moes.

Laura Powers drank there. Yes, yeah. I'm sorry, not Laura Powers, but her mom. Ruth Powers, thank you. But I also do like the many jokes

they get out of his office being a toilet, especially the tampon one later. That's cute. I like that. That's a good visual gag. I agree.

Same with the sterile two-by-four. No doctor needs a two-by-four, let alone a sterilized one. But just how he peels it off to be like, I could do this, but I'd be late. And then he just puts it away. Sort of like a tongue depressor, but much larger. When they get to Homer's training and they show that he can't throw one punch, that is discontinuity with the many fistfights

Homer has had to this day. The fight with Tom, right? Yeah. He got into a giant fight with President Bush. Yeah, his President Bush fight shows he can, well, actually, one punch from a normal man, I would think, would cave in the skull of H.W. Bush even in the 90s.

Even 22 years ago, yeah. So perhaps he was kind of weak then.W. Bush even in the 90s. Even 22 years ago. Yeah. So perhaps he was kind of weak then. True. But I just love his training of just his exhaustion, the fly that is unhurt by his punch, and that he can't even throw a second one. But Moe has a strategy around that. All right. Wait a minute. Just a second.

Okay, punching isn't your thing. But that's okay. You're not that kind of fighter What you're gonna do is stand there While your opponent gets exhausted from over-punching Then I can just push him over That's right, and if the ref's not looking You can kick him a couple of times Who's gonna knock you down?

No one When are you gonna fight back? Never What are you gonna do? Nothing That's my boy I like, uh, punching won't be your thing. Yeah. You're not that

kind of fighter. And it's a great training montage gag. I've never seen Mo on a Vespa before or since, but he's, he's riding, instead of a bicycle, he's riding a Vespa next to Homer. That's where I was referring to, maybe there's a little bit of an illusion of Mike Tyson's punch out, because Homer looks a little like he's

wearing the hoodie. Yeah, that's true. If it were pink, I would say it's definitely. That probably happened before Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson could be referencing something else, like another boxing thing. Yeah. Was that old man on a bike behind Rocky? No, Mickey doesn't run around alongside Rocky. He can barely move.

Yeah. He'll be dead by the third movie. Who's watched all the rocky movies i have watched rocky one through four i never watched rocky five because it doesn't exist i did not watch rocky balboa because all right i've only seen rocky five i watched the first i watched the first five i watched the first 30 minutes of creed and actually got bored what i loved creed everybody loves creed but I was like, I don't get it. Give it another shot before Creed 2 comes out.

I mean, Creed 2 is such an obvious catch. It's like, oh, here comes Ivan Drago. See, that's the thing. They don't go for as many obvious things like that in Creed 1. It's already into camp territory. I mean, they took a full two movies to get into camp territory in Rocky. I mean, by the way, you were right to talk over my Spaceballs joke. It sucked.

I liked it. I like that joke, too. I know. I secretly like Spaceballs, and it's okay. I'm in therapy. I like Spaceballs. It's not a good movie. It's so much fun.

It's so fun. They're having fun making it, and that's what counts in the end, right? Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking forward to Creed, too. I thought you were going to say Spaceballs. Look, everybody loves Creed. I'm in the minority here. And also because Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan,

they're the De Niro and Scorsese of our day. They're so good together that even though he is the villain, Michael B. Jordan is the best in Black Panther. Oh, my God. Jordan. He's amazing. Michael B. Jordan is the best in Black Panther. Oh, my God. He steals that movie incredibly. Even though Lupita Nyong'o and Chadwick Boseman are so good in it as well, as is the man who plays M'Baku. But Michael B. Jordan steals the film every second he's on it. And also, Michael B. Jordan is thick, man.

He's built. I like women. But anyway., man. He's built. Yeah. I like women. But anyway. Despite what people tell you online. So when they go to Moe's and it's boxing, I love the New State quote about Barbaric Boxing. That was great. What was the quote?

Cruelest of sports from Newsday. I love it. It's just such one. You don't have to have, if you just assign this boxing tonight that's all you need that's some editorializing and then they follow it up with one of my favorite barney visual gags they just heightened it so well like you expect him to just start drinking because that's the easy heavy-handed that's an exact joke they would have done in season three but they know they gotta got to up it. It's similar to like, there's beer in this ashtray. And in this case,

it's just varnish. Just a big tub of beer. I love it. Which don't drink that. Yeah, not even like a fun varnish name or brand of varnish. It just says varnish. You can only afford the cheapest of varnish.

Great varnish from Walmart. And he doesn't even borrow a belch either. Is this the first Barney appearance without a belch? Usually belches after he drinks, so who knows? Maybe only belches when he drinks beer. Could be. Varnish is not carbonated. It's not fizzy.

There's no yeast in there. So we get into Homer's first fight against an actual hobo. This is all the John Schwarzwalder stuff because he loves hobos. Way to go, Dad. Take those punches. Man, that tramp's got the energy of a hobo. Yeah, he never stops punching. Except to check out his bimbo.

Okay, homie, he's tired. He's tired. Now's your chance. Nudge him. Nudge him. And he wins. Reminiscent of Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope strategy. Except Homer doesn't move.

You skipped one of my favorite lines. He's a hungry young fighter. In fact, he's fighting for a sandwich. Yes. I I mean I always enjoy hobo humor on The Simpsons And there's a great It's not a great episode but I love the hobo wraparounds I believe it's Simpsons Tall Tales Where they're on a train with a hobo And nothing beats the hobo life

Stabbing folks with my hobo knife This is related to all the hobo jokery Or the bum of Chester Jane Lampwood. Yeah, yeah. They're really into the classic homeless who are like fun adventurers. 30s hobos. Yeah, not people with severe mental illness.

And drug addictions. And drug addiction who are abandoned by a system that doesn't want to take care of them. Well, I'm totally okay with combining sports cliches with 30 zero hobos. And that also shows like bum fights is all Mo can afford. He's not paying these guys anything. I mean, he's taking 60% of the cut,

which can't be that much to get from Homer. Yeah, wait. He must be making like at best $400 or something. Oh, less than that. Are you kidding me? Maybe $100. Oh, less than that. Are you kidding me? Maybe a hundred. Yeah, maybe. And then it goes to a Raging Bull,

even in black and white, montage. And we've said it before, but animating slow motion is very difficult because you have to make more drawings. So there's some shortcuts here. Yes, I think my favorite of the hobos is the Santa Claus hobo who kind of falls forward on his beard.

He's kind of wrapped around Homer and then just passes out. And this scene in Raging Bull is when Robert De Niro's character wins the championship and he's on top of his game for like a whole year or so. And they show multiple things that indicate he has lots of money, including a car wash. For Homer, it is only a car wash. I haven't seen the movie in a long time. I didn't know it was a direct car wash, Raging Bull car wash thing. The shot of Homer with the Hawaiian shirt,

sunglasses, and cigar, that's exactly what Robert De Niro looks like in the similar sequence. Okay, wow. But for Homerer it's only car washes no nicer house no nicer car no new wife you work your way up the the ladder of car wash classes uh we oh god i this just take me back to the car wash that was right by our la recording studio we had to walk by to go to 7-eleven each morning it smelled like the animal exhibit at the fair and i have no idea why it just smelled like manure not shit manure yeah how can that smell

nice in your car but yeah it's it's a bunch of cool scenes of homer even the dates on it are the same dates that go over his fights okay if you do a sports movie you gotta have a montage it's the law yeah and i'm glad they went with the family guy and later shows would have gone with a rocky montage joke which hey i love a good rocky montage joke over a cornball song but this is the classier scorsese montage i was gonna say classier i mean these were boxing nerds you know that they're gonna go for the the de niro movie yeah and rocky was a total joke by this point oh in 96 yeah 96? Yeah. There was no Raging Bull 5 where he fights a country. I mean, we were coming off Rocky 5. Remember that movie that was basically Raging Bull versus

Rocky? Yeah, they literally did that. What? Yeah, it was like, I forget what it was called. Old Man Fight or something like that. Old Man Fight. It was De Niro versus, oh my god. Stallone. Stallone, yeah, exactly. I can't remember names. I mean, hey, I'd watch that movie. That's, no, I'd take my dad watch that movie that's uh no I took my dad

to that movie it was clearly for people in like their 60s or 70s who were like I saw Rocky in the theaters when you're on when you're away

for the holidays with your parents and you're like let's watch a new movie I don't like these new people like okay well here's something starring people

from when you did watch movies oh he's dead and she's dead my uh my when i saw creed with my mom she i'm just so desensitized to like fake boxing in movies that even though it definitely the boxing looks painful in creed my mom was constantly like covering her eyes or like wincing like oh that's so awful looking like apparently the boxing in creed is extremely well done and

michael b j Jordan really did an amazing job but when I watched that movie I was like yeah it looks just as fake as Rocky to me because they gotta have the over-the-top sound effects and everything well now when you re-watch like Rocky 1 you can really see the uh missed punches with sound effects I'm losing all my credibility because I'm raking on Creed a movieaking on Creed, a movie that everybody likes. But I don't know. I'm going to give it another chance. I will.

I will. I have no opinion on Creed. I've not seen it. So after that montage, we cut back to the ladies' restroom with the hilarious cigar tampon joke. And then we get the introduction of our big guest star of the episode.

Hello, Moe. Delightful to see you again. Lucius,us hey what's a glitterati like you doing in my dump i thought you were managing the champ yes managing gretterick has been my highest priority even though he is temporarily incarcerated for pushing his mother down the stairs but with his impending release i've been strategizing for his glorious return to the shores of Fistiana. Um, what? His comeback fight, you know, boxing. Oh, oh man, yeah, well who's donating his body for that one, huh? Well, word is you managed to stall a young pugilist who cannot be knocked down. Homer? You want Homer to fight Tatum? Well, the fans are weary of fights that are over before they have an opportunity to even get drunk.

I just need a body who can sustain verticality for three rounds. Yeah, but Homer's no boxer. He's just a freak. Tatum will fustigate him. Well, fustigation aside, Moe, you've got a choice. You can either sit here in the ladies' room with your faded memories, or you can take your last shot at the big time,

and I can make it happen. Three rounds. That's all I ask. It's great how the flowery Don King language he's using is very much lost on the dumb people of Springfield. The shores of Fishiana. Fustigate is a very Harvard word.

It means to beat as with a cudgel or like a blunt instrument. Oh, wow. So fustigate means to hit with like a blunt instrument. Until I read the friki act for this one, I always thought it was a made up word of bustigate, as in busting someone, but he'll bustigate. I just figured it was like a debigulator or embiggen type word. Nope, it's a real word. Should have realized it was a Harvard smarty pants word, one of those SAT words.

Harvard jerks. So that voice we heard there was the late, great Paul Winfield, who, yes, no longer. Oh, I guess I do have to play the jingle. It's been a while. Death stalks you at every turn. There it is, death. And yeah, it's Paul Winfield, who was a big name character actor in the 70s, 80s and 90s, who I don't know if you've seen a film from the 80s, you likely have seen him in it. I think one of his most famous roles is in The Terminator, where he is one of the detectives who is taking care of Sarah Connor,

who then gets blown away by The Terminator. Though I know Star Trek fans know him as somebody else, right, Kev? Oh, no. Yeah, getting a horrible earworm in Star Trek 2. Oh, yeah, that's right. Captain Clark Terrell, that poor, poor bastard. I want to point out that he died 11 years before this podcast started, so our hands are clean, everybody.

He is, I think, has a distinction maybe of being the only Star Trek fan, or character, sorry, to maybe commit suicide with a phaser? Yes, yeah, it's true. It was the, okay, so Star Trek II, guys. Number one, it's so rare to see the phasers turned up to kill they are being forced to they're both being ordered to kill kirk and checkoff just passes out he gets lucky but paul winfield's character would rather kill himself than than kill the great admiral kirk at this point and it was one of those many times where like poor well i don't want to

say poor con but he got so close like five times that movie he's like well it's time to kill you kirk what again no so when he's not getting an earworm and trying to kill kirk most of the movie he's like what what's wrong check off why are you so upset what i mean oh oh oh i see maybe i should have listened to you. Okay. Also, he's one of my favorite type of Star Trek character actors in that he played double roles. He was also a, I believe, an admiral on Next Gen as well. He was also Darmok.

Oh, on Babylon 5? No, on Star Trek. Oh, okay. Next Generation, one of the best episodes, Darmok. That's who he was. Shaka when the walls fell. That's right. Yes. But he was When the Walls Fell. That's right. Yes.

But he was in Babylon 5 as well as a general. Ah, okay. He was Dr. Franklin's father who wanted Dr. Franklin to be more of a military guy. And they had a kind of a disagreement over things. But yes, he's been in everything is what I'm saying. He's been in 8 million movies. I liked him though because he has a really distinctive voice, really distinctive look. It's great.

Yeah, he's a great actor. If I saw him, I knew that I was like, yep, I'm definitely watching a thing from the 80s. But it was also shooting fish in a barrel to hire Paul Winfield because a year before this episode, he played Don King in the Tyson biopic that HBO had that starred Michael Jai White.

I forgot about that. That is perfect. You get the official Don King impersonator. Yeah. So with that in mind, I kind of think they draw Lucius Sweet not like Don King, but like Paul Winfield playing Don King. That's great. And you will hear his voice at least one more time in The Trouble with Trillions.

Oh. Wait, who does he play in that? He plays him again as Lucius Sweet. He's in the line for the mail. Oh, wait, who does he play in that? He plays him again. Oh, he's in the, uh, in the mail or the IRS. Okay.

That's right. Yes, yes, yes. This is a terrible predicament or some other. Yeah. No, it's a mistake of fiduciary malfeasance or some fancy Don King.

Yeah. That's a terrible episode. I love that episode. Uh, if I have to, if I have to, if I have to, oh yeah, it's full of what

as as a gay person who lives in san francisco that joke only makes me laugh this film will self-destruct if not properly stored but paul winfield a great a great guest star on this and the point of this is to approximate the mid-90s Tyson, who is having his first fights after going to jail. So they have to get around that, and their get around for that is that he shoved his mother down the stairs, which is horrible,

but in a funnier, definitely funnier way. It's like the most reprehensible comedy crime you can do. Which, like, how do you accidentally do that? That was no accident, as Mr. Burns would say. Well, in his parole hearing he said, I would definitely reconsider it.

Yes. It's funnier. I'm glad they, in general, The Simpsons stays away from joking about that. I think that would have been pretty dark even for the mid-90s. Oh, yes. Tiny Toon Adventures made a Mike Tyson domestic abuse joke where, I believe,

Sweetie Bird, the Tweety Bird surrogate being chased or chasing something, and she flies through a library, and a Mike Tyson book falls on her, and she says, Now I know how Robin Givens feels. That's right. Thanks for putting that on TV, everybody. Domestic abuse jokes. Ha ha, she was

beaten by a large man. Oh, God. Yeah. What a weird joke to put in a kid's show. Yeah. That's so weird. Somebody thought that was funny. A little something for daddy.

I mean, I remember when Mike Tyson was... I remember when Mike Tyson went to jail and I remember when he was getting out. It was a big deal when he was getting out of jail.

Oh, it was a big, big deal. And the real life Homer Simpson, who was his first match... Oh, my God. ...was Peter McNeely, who is just a tomato can in boxing terms. deal and the real life homer simpson who was his first match oh my god uh it was peter mcneely who is just a tomato can in boxing terms just like you're you're it's just a task he's full of red liquid so he is like uh he's just this doughy white guy who can be wailed on and not unlike homer he doesn't last one round and so uh let me play a clip here, which you'll also get to hear Judge Mills Lane himself do a swear.

Nothing but brawling. McNeely's given a good account of himself already. Knock that shit off. Come on. Let's go. Mills Lane can stop that nonsense because he's starting to butt heads. Tyson with a left hook and right hook. Down goes McNeely again.

He's down again at a minute 30. Oh, boy. So he lasted slightly longer than Homer Simpson. What year was this again? 1995. Okay, so they're directly referencing this in how short the fights were lasting. Yes, yeah. Well, that was Tyson in general.

His fights were too short. Now people get bored because boxing is too long, and he usually goes to a decision, especially Mayweather. Mayweather is famously a, he is maybe the best pound for pound fighter of all time, but he is a famously safe boxer who, there's a reason he has an undefeated record.

It's because he's choosy of his fights and picks guys he knows he can beat with a boring strategy. He waits until they get too old. And then he goes and he beats them because he's extremely fast. I mean, he had a deal with Conor McGregor

or whatever his name was. Well, that thing is bullshit. Yeah, it was total crap. Well, so Conor McGregor, no good person himself either. It's kind of like, who's the worst asshole? I'm sorry,

but any really great boxer in his prime could totally take Floyd Mayweather to the cleaners. Right now, yeah. I'm talking like if you put him up head-to-head with Muhammad Ali, I'm sorry. It wouldn't even be close.

But so instead Mayweather took his most recent match after retiring undefeated was against Conor McGregor who he knew he could beat. Like Conor McGregor in an MMA ring could kill Mayweather. Conor McGregor was just doing a sideshow. He just wanted a payday. Well, he made $100 million. And really just watching him, that was one of the wildest things. We're like, everyone knows how the match is going to go.

You're just watching guys get rich. But it was really about their touring press conferences of just, like, the two of them saying the nastiest shit to each other, especially on McGregor's side, slightly racially tinged, I will say, about his problems with Mayweathers. Nobody cared because it was the first real super fight in forever. Yeah, yeah. For some reason, I was thinking of that Butterbean guy.

Oh, yeah. It's not him, but if you want to see a living sentient thumb, Google Butterbean. You'll find him. Yeah, good old Butterbean. I know him from wrestling as well, which at the same time, right after, as Mike Tyson got banned again after his ear biting, he then cashed in at WWF at WrestleMania. Oh, thank you so much for reinstating Hulk Hogan. You mentioned highly technical fighters.

Mike Tyson ended his career basically fighting Lennox Lewis, who was extremely technically sound, and took Mike Tyson to the cleaners. It was just sad. It was just sad. You're just like, you shouldn't be doing this, Mike. But it was, Mike needed the money. He needed, like, he was still broke.

He was still broke after. Like, he took that match for millions of dollars, and that was just to pay debts. But now he lives in Arizona with his 35 pigeons. Yep, and he gets to make a bad adult swim show. That's pretty bad. Yeah. No offense to anybody who works on it,

but I like in this episode how Mo easily transitions into the Joe Pesci character from Raging Bulls. Yeah, yeah. He just becomes it, especially the way he's talking Homer into things. It's real sad how much Homer trusts him implicitly. He's not even telling him, like, hey, would you like a match against this guy?

Here's your parking pass. You're going to win. Wow, general. It's next week. You also get the cut to Tatum in prison and everyone in prison being terrified of him, which is not exactly... I think actually Mike Tyson needed protection in prison because you're a target. Oh, yeah.

If you're a tough guy in prison, wouldn't you want the rep of stabbing Mike Tyson? I believe Tyson, at least while in prison, converted to the Nation of Islam as well. Sure did. I don't think that stuck. The prison riot joke reminds me of Sideshow Bob calling into the conservative talk show while the riot's happening in the background. Really now? A prison riot joke is always really good. It didn't stop for him, though.

I love that he's eating Jell-O, green Jell-O, very specific. It's all cubed in a bowl. Gross. Sorry, champ.ello, very specific. It's all cubed in a bowl. Gross. Sorry, champ. Sorry, champ. Sorry. And then we get to his press conference. Champ, champ, do you feel remorse for your crime?

Oh, yes. Believe me, my God. If I could turn back the clock on my mother's stair pushing, I would certainly reconsider it. Dreaderick, what do you think of Homer Simpson? I think he's a good man. I like him. I got nothing against him, but I'm definitely going to make orphans of his children. You know, they do have a mother, champ.

Yes, but I would imagine that she would die of grief. Dreaderick, over here. Thank you, thank you, but the champ has no time for further queries. This parole hearing is over. I want to know what he was like in prison. no time for further queries. This parole hearing is over. Aww. I want to know what he was like in prison. Or what it was like in prison, sorry.

I love that. I gotta think that's a Dan Castellano ad lib. He does a lot of those. Yes, yeah. It's a funny parody of a celebrity parole hearing, too. And though Mike Tyson said crazier things than make orphans of his children i'm gonna eat your children i'm gonna eat your children yep i also liked how he made his crime in the passive in the passive way where he's like my mother's stair pushing not if i could rethink

pushing my mother down the stairs it's very very artfully done to shift the blame i i feel like i'm trying later seasons for crimes they didn't exactly commit but i do think they just would have either had mike tyson or made up a new mike tyson guy but for this one in this in the simpsons nerd years like we already have a mike tyson guy we all remember dreddrick jayden let's just bring him back i love this same design same voice he had all the all the callbacks and it's so you get a nice little callback in history within this very current and relevant boxing episode and uh then we cut straight to we cut straight to mr newspaper homer why are they saying you're going to fight dredd or tatum

uh well i was gonna surprise you but but... Happy anniversary, baby! Have you lost your mind? Oh, come on! I'll make a fortune for one night's work! We could have all the things we always dreamed of! A snooty butler, carpeted carports, those blue cupcakes they sell sometimes! But you'll get killed! March, will you let me finish?

Plug-in room deodorizers, front and rear spoilers for the car. Mom's right, Dad. The odds against you winning are 1,000 to 1. Well, I don't think it's that unlikely. Those are the odds they're giving in Vegas. All right, I think we've heard just about enough from Mr. Newspaper today. I was trying to find previous appearances, and I believe he's in a few crowd scenes here and there, but I believe he's one of the guests at Flaming Moes who comes in like, oh, Dredrick Tatum.

Oh, yeah. He's let in out of a limo or whatever. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I at first thought he punched somebody, but it's Krusty that punches the paparazzi. Yeah, yeah. A very Sean Penn joke.

I just want to make an observation that Leicester City, the soccer club, which won the Premier League title a couple years ago, this is going somewhere, had 5,000 to 1 odds. So Homer had a better chance of beating Dredrick Tatum than Leicester had of winning the Premier League title a couple years ago. This is going somewhere. Had 5,000 to 1 odds. So Homer had a better chance of beating Dreddick Tatum than Lester had of winning the Premier League. Could have made that number bigger.

Come on, guys. So what I'm saying is that Homer had a shot. He had a chance. Well, they can always be congenital heart failure. You can't keep that. I know. I mean, I just want to point out, by the way, that if it got in the distance, Homer might have won

because, I mean, he never goes down. It's true. And eventually, Dreddick Tatum might have the distance homer might have won because i mean he never goes down it's true he and eventually dred tate might have gotten tired he might have i i love that how marge finds out is through a newspaper that says he's gonna wail on local man local man just local man though though that is you know when guys go to jail they are usually stripped of the title but he is the world heavyweight champion coming out of jail. So that's a slightly different from reality moment there. Another appearance I remembered when they bleeped the F word. If you ever see me back in Springfield, you know I really fucked up.

It was an Island Springfield segment. I think it was Lisa's first word. That's right. It's a local guy. I really fucked up. He just says it. Yeah. He's helping the bleep.

And at some point after that, He pushed his mother down the stairs And I love not just Homer saying Mr. Newspaper and throwing it out the window But then sitting down to glare As he eats his breakfast And everybody's like how dare you doubt me Then we get the Commercial for the match

Society put Dredrick Tatum away for his brutal crime, but he's paid his debt. And now he's going to get revenge on Homer Simpson. That's your daddy. Homer's head exploding When the fist hits it I love that It's kind of a reference to Rocky IV I mean, I guess

I mean, the two gloves do explode In the trailer, actually Oh, okay And in the opening of the movie as well Oh, okay, yeah You see a Soviet boxing glove And then an American boxing glove And they come together like under a rock and explode into Rocky IV.

Is it CGI? It's got to be like crappy CGI. This was 1985, so no. Yeah, they just built real boxing gloves to explode. Okay. But in this case, it's Homer's head in a boxing glove that explodes. And also that it hasn't set in for anybody how much danger homer is in that even amy's like that you did well we're back to lisa and i is with everybody loving violence

yeah kill bart kill bart well i mean that prize fight mentality is very real one blood sport one of the most like uh in danger in a i'm a nerd i don't like i don't like hardcore jock crowds but like i've been to baseball but I've been to baseball games. I've been to football games, and there are definitely some serious people there. But when the most in danger I felt of a fight's about to start right next to me was when I went to a UFC

match in Vegas, and there were just two guys who were next to each other who were really revved up, and one guy liked one guy, and one guy liked the other guy. And when they started expressing opinions at each other who were really revved up, and one guy liked one guy, and one guy liked the other guy. And when they started expressing opinions at each other, if their girlfriends weren't there to put a hand on their shoulder, like, please don't do this, there would have been a fight.

Just challenge him to an online game. Violence in the crowds in sports is pathetic, but I've seen YouTube videos of football games where you see massive crowds, and they're never actually really fighting. I've seen YouTube videos of like football games where you see massive crowds and it's, they're never actually really fighting. They're always kind of, everybody's kind of pushing back and forth on one another until the security guards kind of come in and finally drag them out.

But yeah. Though there was famously a boxing match in this time that went into a riot, like almost a full scale riot because it was Riddick Bowe kept getting punched in the dick by the other guy who's facing him who just like it was it was like the ear biting where they kept warning him like quit punching him in the crotch he's like and he does it again and then

it's just a full disqualification the entire crowd just gets up and that's when you realize like they have five security guards in this entire arena and there's clips of George Foreman talking down a guy from beating horribly, naming another person. Like, friend, you don't want to do that. You don't want to do that.

Let go of him. We pain to see blood. Do you remember the Malice in the Palace from 2003? Oh. The Detroit Pistons basketball players were climbing into the stands to actually fight fans. Wow. It was one of the darkest, it was one of the lowest moments for the NBA.

I don't mean to laugh. This is the end of basketball. It was one of the most insane things we've ever seen. Well, I mean, the Pistons are famously the bad boys of basketball. It was the Pacers versus the Pistons. And the Pacers, one of the Pacersers main guys got suspended for like the next year for climbing into the stands to fight a guy you know speaking of the homer getting punched in the face that's on a t-shirt and the wonderful simpsons fan account bart of darkness made he specializes

in making t-shirts that are worn within the simpsons uh so I think Bob and me both have that shirt that they are selling of Homer about to be punched in the face. I think I'm wearing that shirt, and you are wearing the high man shirt. That is true, yeah. Also, thanks again to Nina for updating my haircut without being asked. Yeah, no, Nina's the best.

We love her. You got to hear her on Summer 4'2". So great. But I also just love the line of like, tell people where you've been because you got a t-shirt. I just did that last night of buying a Fooly Cooly t-shirt because now people will know I was at the Pillows concert. I was complaining about video game t-shirts.

I may have way too many sports t-shirts. Well, I noticed that we were out of the all I got was this lousy t-shirt era of jokes. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad that's dead. No, nobody wants those. Come on. Now, I own probably three

times the t-shirts I should own, but I don't want to get rid of them. Though I don't stream or appear on videos much anymore, which is a real waste of all my funny graphic t-shirts. I could be advertising things all the time. I really like Bart's childish idea of amnesia

as they're preparing for the fight here. You'll be okay, Dad. Just make sure he hits you an even number of times so you don't end up with amnesia. Malt, I'm so glad I found you. Please, promise me you won't let Homer get hurt. Hey, hey, I'm not the villain here, okay? If Homer gets killed in the ring tonight,

it'll be because of your negative attitude. Dare I said it. Listen to me. The instant that Homer's in any kind of danger, I want you to throw in this towel and stop the fight. Right, all right, all right, I promise, okay? Thank you. He throws it away.

It does remind me of the Marge and Mo confrontation in Lisa on Ice, another sports episode where it's like, I'm too tense to pretend I like you, Mo. Yes, that was Mo. Sorry, that was a horrible Marge. It sounded more like Mo. That was Marge hitting her limit of pretending to like him and just like, listen to me.

Yeah, I like her reading. I like Julie's reading there. When Mo was such a degenerate that he was collecting bets or trying to scout ahead so he could collect bets. He's like touching the children's arms. He's set a line on them. Yeah. And I also, this is where it gets extra Rocky. Like in Rocky 4,

this is the scene where the wife of Apollo tells him to throw in the towel, but he made a man's promise to men to make that he will not throw in the towel for Creed. So he tosses the towel away, which will then lead to Apollo

Creed dying in the ring. Yeah, what is a towel joke? Is that a reference to... That's what Rocky does when he throws away the towel in the same slow motion style. I was wondering. I totally missed that. So in Rocky 4, Apollo Creed is going to fight Ivan Drago for an exhibition match, and he's like, don't let me throw... Don't throw in the towel, Apollo Creed is going to fight Ivan Drago for an exhibition match.

And he's like, don't let me throw, don't throw in the towel, man. Don't throw in the towel. You got to promise me. Got to promise me. And then Apollo Creed, of course, gets his face beaten in. And Rocky hesitates. He's going to do it. And then he doesn't.

And Apollo dies. And then he has to go to Russia. I don't know why I laughed at that. He has to take it to the limit also marge she seems to know she's in a rocky parody because she puts on the adrian jacket oh my god yeah boy i have not seen many rocky movies everybody everybody always thinks of adrian as kind of the wet blanket unfortunately which is kind of a she's the soul uh and earlier an earlier class of sports writers Would always rag on Adrienne If it's like, ah, she's

I hate Adrienne, grr, grr, grr The stupid wife But, yeah, I mean That's all she kind of does in the movies Is go, oh, Rocky Please don't go and fight Until finally she goes Rocky, go fight, win

Yeah, I can see why that actress Stopped coming back for those movies Do it for the mixture And then they just killed her off screen Yep Well, I mean, she's also, she's, she's. Oh, she was a better actress. Yeah, and she's Hollywood royalty.

Like, she's in the Coppola family. Oh, really? I didn't know that. She's also the mother of Jason Schwartzman. Fucking nepotism. Get back to Phantom Planet where you belong, Jason. You wonder why all those people are friends. It's like, well, yeah, because they're third generation Hollywood stars.

It's like Benedict Cumberb're third generation Hollywood stars It's like kind of a cummerbatch Knows everybody could too as well If they're not all friends from Scientology Then it's because they're related to Coppola Nicolas Cage also a Coppola But as a kid I loved the amnesia joke Because that is how I felt

Amnesia is like one punch you have amnesia Second punch it turns it off That's how it does on the Flintstones I'm just quoting a kids in the hall line now it's like a light bulb one of my all-time favorite kids in the hall sketches is the mule kicking that guy in the head and giving him amnesia and then they think that getting a mule to kick him in the head will fix it and then that kills him instead we We need to establish a Kids in the Hall drinking game for Talking Simpsons. That's our second. Take your second drink, everybody.

We haven't said Mystery Science Theater yet. You just did. Well, that doesn't count. Well, if I'm on the show, then you've got to establish a drinking game for Star Trek and Babylon 5. It's true. You're going to die if you do that. If you're a recovering alcoholic, turn our show off, please. It's funny.

Every time you're on here, there's at least one person who's been on Star Trek. I know, it's kind of weird, isn't it? But so then we get our other celebrity who is still with us, Michael Buffer. Celebrities at ringside tonight, star of the McBain action films and featured player in the Hollywood prostitution scandal, Renier Wolfcastle. TV anchorman and Springfield Institution, Mr. Kent Brockman. This just in, go to hell. From the world of organized crime,

say hello to Anthony Fat Tony D'Amico. And the rumor of events worldwide, title fights, the Super Bowl, and the Nixon funeral. Ladies and gentlemen, the Fan Man! Ah, cripes.

I gotta comb this side over. I do really enjoy the joke about not singing the national anthem due to popular demand. That's my line of the show, personally. Whenever I go to a sports event, I immediately, and they start to sing the national anthem, I think demand that's my line of the show personally whenever i go to a sports event i immediately when and they start to sing the national anthem i think of that line yeah let's be honest i don't want to do the national anthem sorry i guess i'm not patriotic there are better songs about ramparts i've said it before i'll say it again now michael buffer so that's michael

buffer the famous let's get ready trumbull guy which we will hear later and that he trademarked that or copyright early in his career no one else can do it they can't do it and so he's become a millionaire just for that like i mean it's effective yeah it's nobody says it better than him like catchphrase he says it great and there were those uh boxing games in the late 90s uh ready to rumble in which michael jackson was uh in there well michael buffer is like a boss in one of them like the buff it's him and his half-brother bruce buffer bruce buffer bruce buffer is the announcer for ufc uh and he'll do like we are live okay okay i do recognize that and uh i actually kind of i kind of prefer the bruce buffer seems more excited. Like he feels like he wants, you feel with Michael Buffer, he's doing a job.

Bruce Buffer is happy to be there. His famous thing is kind of a yawn. Yes. Just kind of falls out of him. I was reflecting recently that we've lost a lot of our great announcers. I don't know why. Like great commentators, great announcers. I don't know if it was a thing of maybe you had people who came up on the radio and you were just a lot better at that. I don't know if it was a thing of maybe you had people who came up on the radio

and you were just a lot better at that. I don't know. Maybe not enough smoking and drinking. I was going to say that. That makes the announcer voice, just having tobacco and whiskey in your throat all day, every day. And Michael Buffer also was the favorite. One of his early things coming up as an announcer was at every boxing match that happened at Trump-affiliated hotels and businesses. I know that guy. Jim Ross is the one guy I can think of

who is still doing his thing. He's very old, but he's still doing his thing. He's got a distinctive voice. I don't really watch his stuff, but I just love the term slobber knocker. It sounds disgusting and funny at the same time. Well, I have a funny story of michael buffer related to wrestling too which is so here's a big deal with boxing

and meanwhile wcw the competitor to wwf the 90s they had more money than sense and they thought we're gonna have a big fight feel to our wrestling matches where we're gonna pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per appearance for michael buffer to come here and announce our main event and so he'd do it and he'd say let's get ready to rumble he'd do all that but he would often get the names of the wrestlers wrong because he was just reading them off a card and he didn't care and it was it was famously a joke that he was like they're paying this much for this guy to say bret hart's name wrong and then meanwhile it uh it got parodied in wwf because he's like well we can't say let's get

ready to rumble but dx will say let's get ready to suck it and clever yes it was so all the time talking about sucking dicks in dx it was uh but yeah he's he's had pinball machines. He's had the boxing games. I think he still is an announcer. I think he's still at it. Bruce Buffer is still at it. Let's talk about Heidi Fleiss, though. Oh, I was going to bring that up. Yes, the Hollywood madam. And I mean, Charlie Sheen is

a guy who pays for it. And he's a horrible domestic abuser. And I'm surprised he's alive after everything he's been through. And I believe, is he HIV positive now? He is. I mean mean that's not a judgment call but it's truth it's truth but yeah he's he's done a lot yeah well so uh well though i don't want to i also want to say like this is a we're a sex work positive yes yes yes like i don't want to judge there's a lot of very bad things in these in the sex work industry that would be fixed if people were more accepting of it. But that's neither here nor there.

But the Heidi Fleiss thing, she was the madam to the stars. So that's why it got so much press because she hooked up people in Hollywood and people always wondered like, well, you're famous. You can be with anyone you want. And they're like, well, yeah, but why go to all that work? Like get a pro and just not have to do a fake date or anything and apparently it was just recently revealed some of the people who had previously been unnamed in her a-list celebrity of customers and that includes johnny depp jack nicholson and george lucas really yeah okay george lucas man i mean it's better than for you i guess being on the flight log of the lolita express or George Lucas. Really? Yeah. Okay. Oh, George Lucas, man. George Lucas, yeah.

I mean, it's better than being on the flight log of the Lolita Express or whatever, which there's a lot of guys on that. Yeah. Google it, folks. Yeah. We don't want to get sued. You just look it up yourself. You know, I really like the Kent Brockman joke because there's no reason everybody hates

him. It's just you just accept like oh he's the local news guy and everyone hates him well we hate the media we still hate the media at wrestling events anytime a local news person is there they get booed horribly just like you're phony you're not one of us they could be booing him because in season three he won the lottery that's true and now he's hated for being a rich man who still works. And he also turned us over to our aunt overlords. Yeah.

That's true. He sold us out. And constantly ranting about how women are trying to subjugate men in the book of Revelations. It's in Revelations, people. And then last thing to unlock here, there's a lot of references to unlock here uh but the last one is the fan man who real name based on a real guy james miller who was a very boring name it's why everyone calls him fan man and he had grown up a fan of of uh of of parachuting and skydiving and stuff but it said enthusiast god God damn it.

And so he was just into doing stunts like that. He did them in Las Vegas. And he had been doing his directed parachuting by having a giant fan on his back while also jumping off of a building or jumping out of something. And so there is a big open air boxing match in las vegas happening in 1993 evander holyfield versus riddick bow and in the seventh round this happens falling under the left eye of riddick bow nothing serious right now but they've been using the end spell right from the first round probably as a preventive measure and whoa somebody just there's been a parachutist a skydiver has just landed here at ringside tried to come into the ring he hit the ring ropes and there is chaos here at caesar's palace in the outdoor stadium the ball is turning into a fat bald guy.

That's what that reminded me of. They don't know how to react to it. Well, and so the fan man, obviously, he was slightly off. He wanted to land in the ring, but he actually kind of bounces off the ropes and falls to the outside, where he is immediately grabbed by every person who is just wailing on him. I can tear this man apart. He gets it. James Miller gets it bad. But it delays the match for 21 minutes,

which Riddick Bowe says that's why he lost the match, because he's like, it was seventh round. I was finally mounting my comeback, and then Evander Holyfield got to rest for 20 whole minutes while they figured out what to do with this fan. Was the fan man arrested for this crime? Yes. yes trespassing or whatever they hooked him on something like that it was mainly a fine and probation i see and taking your fan away but it's just amazing to look at just the footage like it's never something like that's never happened before it's it's it's

wild see you can see why even though it happened three years before this episode aired, it's still on everyone's minds. If there was the chance of a fan man, I would watch sports. Like, is he going to show up? Where is this fan man coming from? Why have an airplane fly over when you have a fan man? That's way more exciting. Though now in the post-9-11 world, he would just

be shot by one of the many snipers around. So he actually would then get a modicum of fame from this. He would replicate the stunt at a football game, I think in a Super Bowl that year. And he'd do it a bit over in England as well. And then kind of became unfamous and went into obscurity and passed away in 2005. You guys can look up the sad story. Death jingle.

I didn't know. It was an open fan funeral. No, don't do the death jingle. And this is when we also found out that Fat Tony is Fat Tony D'Amico. That's right. He got a name now. I think in Bart the Murderer, it was Tony, wait, William, Fat Tony Williams. That's right. Yeah, which that's a pretty great joke, too.

But from here on out, it's Fat Tony D'Amico, which is a more Italian name. I did a finger motion. Your Italian accent. Oh, mama mia. So then they head down to the ring, and they actually to make this even more accurate to tyson they give dredd eric tatum the music that mike tyson came out to against peter mcneely in his return match i figured that it was not a joke because there is no joke with that song so i thought it was just the song that he came out to, it's just rare to hear The Simpsons play current hip-hop. Like, that back then never happened.

But the song in question is Redman, Time for Some Action, which is a good song to hear for boxing, as I'll show you right now. In this corner we have the folk body snatcher He folk the delicate and I gotcha Hard enough that I could chew a whole back of rock Chew an avenue, chew an off street and off block Then turn around and do the same damn thing to a solo Touch Reggie Noble's piss I'll crush the whole brain brain That owns. I liked him in How High. This is back when Redman was more scary to mainstream pop culture

instead of being repackaged with Method Man as the Cheech and Chong of the 90s. But yeah, it's a song that does make you feel like getting in a fight. It's a good fighter entrance song. It's been reused by other fighters too, like Anderson Silva of

UFC fame has come out to it as well. It's got a good jump around style drum loop. That's how much I know about hip hop, everybody. And also just saying like, time for some action. Like, yeah, time for some action. Let's do this. And they even just redrew like a Tyson entrance.

Like the people around him are so specific. They have to have been a drawing of Tyson's posse. Looked like a real like Ralph Bakshi rotoscope shots. Yeah. How true to have been a drawing of Tyson's posse. Looked like a real Ralph Bakshi rotoscope shot. Yeah. How true to life it was. And then we see his nickname is Mr. Armageddon, but not as good as Kid Dynamite and the baddest man on the planet, which I think Mike Tyson

has the advantage there. Mr. Armageddon is not, it's not jokey enough for a Simpsons joke you usually expect, but they saved all the funny names for Homer. Due to popular demand, we will forego our national anthem. And now, ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble!

Okay, Homer, nothing to be worried about. Just... Wow, I've never seen Dad hit somebody like that before. What are you talking about? Isn't Dad the one in the black trunks? No. Uh-oh. What, what, what am I missing? What?

The Marge appearance at the end, she's ducking out from behind a girder or whatever you call that on top, a pylon. I do like Homer's entrance to being called the Southern Danty, but Why Can't We Be Friends is a funny choice, but it's a little obvious. I don't know.

I think they could have gone for a deeper reference. They could have went for a song where Homer thinks it means something different. That could have been a better joke. Let let's do a real like punch up on this script from 22 years ago yeah we're funnier than these writers no no uh and yeah buffer's not a great actor but he does when he needs to deliver let's get ready to rumble he does it better and same with uh talking about the Anthem not being played. So great. Getting back to Marge behind the girder, it's very observed of being stuck in an obstructed view seat.

I've been stuck in an obstructed view seat in my sports moments, but now all the stadiums are relatively new, so it's a lot less common these days. You can have a problem if you go to the, say, see an athletics game in their rundown Ramshackle building. Oh, yeah, yeah a problem if you go to the like say see an athletics game and they're run down ramshackle building oh yeah yeah you could totally go to but at the same time people regular people can actually afford to go to those games at the same time so you actually have decent crowds during like the playoffs or whatever i feel bad for the simpsons family who can't even get a

front row seat to watch their dad get annihilated general parking the farthest back seats yeah well i mean um in dancing home where they sat in the players wives section well you got to make room for all those people who are wearing the crazy outfits because i mean no tasteful clothing allowed right that was a good visual guy i did forgot to comment on that yes well everyone is wearing tacky outfits like crusty and kent's yeah well just all the people and they're like more like they were dressed more like the people who went to Muhammad Ali matches in the 70s, not so much Tyson fights.

They were coming in over from just over the state line where Marge and Homer got married. That's right. Now, while this seems to take place in Springfield, even though it is really a Las Vegas feel to this match. I mean, everything takes place in Springfield, even though it should be taking place somewhere else. We could say Capital City.

Did they say Springfield? No, they said the Springfield Civic, Sports, whatever. And they mentioned it on the commentary, but I never thought of it until then. Michael Buffer is not a commentator. He does not continue talking. Once he says, let's get ready to rubble and introduce the fighters, his job is done.

He is not a boxing commentator. He's not a ref. He's just an introducer guy? Yeah. They spent the money to have him, and might as well have him as a commentator. Why not? So it's funny to hear him do commentating like this.

Showing utter disdain for his opponent's abilities, Tatum is taking a short mid-round breather to converse with actor Charlie Sheen. You know what's great there is the sea bass. To do a blackened or sauteed is stupendous. Okay, break it up, break it up, you two. Hold on! Hold on, he's not going to get tired!

You've got to hit him back! Hit him back! That cactus is right. I've only got one chance. I've got to knock him out! It's very Simpsons-type, the thing that would work in any other fiction, not work here. I believe in myself now. It's like, no, you're still weak.

You're still going to be beaten. You're whiffing completely. And that is in the top most painful things I've seen happen to Homer in the show. He's been punched in the face this whole time. But two, in general in boxing, if the ref saw a guy been punched in the face this whole time, but to, in general in boxing, if the ref saw a guy get punched on the top of the head, that's why the ref is there to then say, this match is over.

Like the ref is doing a very, not just the fight doctor, but the referee doing a very poor job. Meanwhile, Mo never apparently taught Homer how to say, I don't know, block. That would have been good. He just stands there. Just stand there and get punched in the face a lot.

Well, perhaps it would help if he put his gloves up. Just a thought. I also like the kind of time dilation that happens. And it really is more like a minute, but six seconds pass in his horrible beating. I would say, though, in my estimation, this is probably the most painful blow to the head Homer has taken.

But the punch Tom gives him in Brother from Another Planet is the most painful looking. And Homer even comments, this is more painful than it looks. Yeah. Where he's uppercutted over a hydrant. That is pretty painful. It's in his spine, yeah. Oof, yeah, where it's dug into his spine. It's hard to say, but I guess in in this one too, they give you so much time

of Homer going, oh. He didn't do his trick of saying, I'm a hemophiliac and then kicking him in the back. So I boxed once. Oh, wow. Really? Back in the day, I was in karate. Wow. And it was a co-ed karate.

And one day we did boxing for some reason. And so I had a headgear on and i ended up getting and even though we had like a face mask and everything i still no we didn't have a face mask that's why it was so painful it was the most painful experience of my life whoa i got punched in the face i had a glove i had a glove on and i was like staggering around because i was like, I totally cannot see anything. I am very confused. Wow. Yeah, so I think of that often when I see this episode. Yeah, I'm getting more boxing memories.

That friend who liked boxing wanted to box, and I think I did it once. I'm like, stop hitting me. This sucks. I never did boxing. Me and my friends more played around during MMA, which is like, that lets you get out homoerotic tension

in a different way. But I did get punched in the face once in my life, but that was, well, though it was kind of nothing because I'm such a big, tough man. No, it was kind of nothing because it was like, I was 17 and a former friend of my little brothers who was like 13 got mad at me and just like sucker punched me in the face.

And it didn't feel good, but it also was like he was a small child punching. He was a 13 year old punching me. He didn't have much strength behind it. And it just made me so angry that I forgot what it, the adrenaline rush happened that I just forgot what hurt. But so, I'm the toughest person here that punched and hurt my face. Nobody punched me.

So the concept. I don't ever want to be punched in the face either. So the idea of Homer having to last X number of rounds is not exactly a new boxing trope, but it always makes me think of one of my favorite boxing movies, which is Snatch. Oh, that's so good.

Yeah. Classic boxing movie and also diamond heist film and screwball comedy and everything's happening but i i do actually really like the boxing scenes in that movie especially the the final one the music is really good the editing is excellent and everything but the first time you see brad pitt playing the the irish boxer come in and they're like, you only have to wait until X round to take out this guy. He's just like, wham, and that guy goes down onto the mat. And all the punishment he has to take until the end in the last one, especially one of the best

things probably Guy Ritchie ever filmed was that big punch to Brad Pitt and then he falls into water instead of hitting the ground. I mean, I think that's a really great observation of what maybe going unconscious is like. You're in the water, you're losing consciousness, and then he comes right back out. It's like, and then we were fucked. Dreddick Tatum also does seem scummy enough to be friends with Charlie Sheen. Even in 1996, the joke about Charlie Sheen- Was Charlie Sheen scumbag back then? Oh, yeah. By then, he was, totally. Sure. I mean... I'm talking about something

wholesome like Seabass, though, which is funny. I mean, it was a boxing... That sounds good. Who goes to a boxing match? Charlie Sheen, probably. Oh, totally. You make your appearance there. You still see celebrities at MMA matches, too. Vin Diesel appears at those a lot of the time.

He's a big MMA fan. All your rich buddies are there. Good gambling scene. Meet some organized crime people. Give you a good loan. Get to hang out with Dana White and other people who spoke at the Republican National Convention. And I will say, people who aren't funny online still go, winning. Remember that? Remember when he was insane?

Tiger's blood. Tiger blood. And had all those interviews. That was a meme for five seconds. Homer, I also, yeah, that cactus is right. Another great Homer. That could be a line of the show, to be honest. And that's, so everybody is chanting for Homer to die.

Patty and Selma being in the shot is pretty great too. And that Mo has just abandoned him, which this is this is really making boxing look bad because again a fighter this fight would have been stopped after like the second punch it would be like no no no i mean that's pretty much what happened in the the comeback fight in the real comeback fight right he went down twice and then they stopped the fight yeah it's in the guy just like it's popped once or twice and it's just like okay get your standing eight count you're gonna get one more try no and the guy's just like drenched in sweats and his eyes are it's all turned off it's it's it's it's one of it it's what made people think uh the old tyson is back he knocked

out this guy in no time but it was really just that this guy was some nobody like it as he had a great pre-fight line though oh yeah i going to wrap you in a cocoon of terror. That sounds like an ad for a Stephen King film. Homer is getting fustigated quite well, and then everybody, even Michael Buffer is like, well, it's time for Tatum to kill Homer Simpson with this last punch, and the big wind-up is also straight from raging bull.

That's how sugar Ray Robinson delivers his final punch to take out Robert De Niro in it. Because he's just like, I got it. He's, he's given up, but he needs sugar Ray Robinson, who was the greatest boxer of his era to truly defeat him.

Just so he could be like, all right, I give up. And then he's like, you never knocked me down, Ray. You never knocked me down, as the famous line goes. But a different thing happens here. But again, great slow motion. Like the drawback from Tatum looks really great. There's a lot of drawings in that punch.

Oh, my God. Simpson's manager has flown into the ring and is airlifting him out. Ladies and gentlemen, whatever dignity remained in boxing is literally flying out the window. Are you an angel? Yes, Homer, I'm an angel. All us angels wear pharaoh slacks. Well, you stopped the fight. Won't everyone be mad at you?

Ah, let them be mad. The only thing that matters to me is you're safe. No! Sorry. We're getting hit in the head one last time. One last time after his skull has been fractured already. That's what it would have sounded like if Dr. Hibbert had used the medical 2x4.

That alone is like, that's the second most painful visual in this. Just the sound is painful. Ow! You're dead. You're dead. Well, I mean, just ignore the fact that Moe is carrying this 200, 300-pound man. Oh, yeah, Moe.

With a fan thing, with his little skinny arms. Moe still has some of his boxing strength left, I guess. It's also great that he flies out of the little hole at the top of this arena, too. And they head outside, and we have the cute little moment of Tatum asking if Lucius would do that for him. Speaking of jokes, season three jokes, it reminds me of the original Sparkle and the other Yo-Yo stars being put in the back of the van afterwards. That's right. Like, get in the van, which I think Tyson, at least, he didn't have to get in a van. He just had, he had a separate limo from Don.

He had a nice limo. With champagne, I guess. But, so we have reached the end. You couldn't even give me one lousy round, Mo. You will always be a loser. Now take your check for $100,000 and get out of my sight. Wow. I don't need your stinky money.

Hold me. Are you okay? I can't remember where we parked. That's all right. We'll just wait till everyone else leaves. I got your tooth, Dad. Not mine. Thank you, Moe. I know you gave up your tooth, Dad. Uh, not mine. Thank you, Moe.

I know you gave up your dreams for Homer. Well, what are dreams, Madam Marge? I was able to stick up for a pal. Well, so long, Springfield. Where are you going? Oh, nowhere in particular. I just need some time to think. Hey, there you are!

Hey, you give me that, I can drop you back! So that is Barbara Streisand's People Who Need People. Oh, the luckiest people. I only know that from the Coffee Talk SNL sketch. Oh, right. Oh, wait. Oh, so I think Richard Simmons comes on, and they sing a parody, People Who Eat Pizzas Have the Highest Cholesterol in the World.

Wow, I have forgotten that goal. It's Linda Richmond and Richard Simmons. Leave him alone, leave him alone, people, he's fine. Yeah. Stop looking for him. That's a sad day in the annals of podcasting. I agree. But I love that Mo, that great joke of just like, always be a loser.

He's $100,000. And then Mo, carefully fold it. So that trope, I don't need your stinking money and ripping that, that always drives me crazy. It's like, don't rip that up. Just take the money. It's your money. It's fuck you money.

It's great. Or at least give, you know what, if you hate it so much, give it to your favorite charity. You know, you don't have to keep it. Well, Mo took a note from Homer who watched, like, they ripped the, oh no, that's later. When Lisa rips the check from Mr. Burns. Oh, yes, that's coming soon. And he has the coronary.

That reminds me of a personal thing with Henry and I. When we left our jobs together, our last job we had together over a year ago, they were like, you know what? Just take your last two weeks pay and get out of here. And we're like, okay. Did they expect us to go, I won't take that money, sir. I'm leaving right now. I have had enough of you. Yeah, it's like, I'll take your money. Can I have more money? You did the Homer

burning the bridge thing. Yes, and I stole as much as I could on the way out. I always wish I had stolen more. That was a great... That was satire, by the way.. I always wish I had stolen more. That was a great... That was satire, by the way. That comment about stealing. Yes, stealing.

Very satirical. And I also love the ending that it seems like Mo is leaving them forever and they're like, well, wait,

where are you guys? Like, now I'll be back. He just has to be clear. Like, I will be back. Doing humanitarian acts across the world, delivering supplies to starving people,

saving women from floods. It's very nice. He's finally, Mo finally did some good in this world. And yeah, we'll be hearing that Shai Sen song over the credits of this, well, credits, over the end of this episode. So when this episode aired, I was recording it on the family TV.

I did not have a VCR in my room yet. And my sister had rented the Martin Lawrence lawrence movie a lowdown dirty shame that was starting at 8 30 she was trying to get me to change the channel but i was like there are jokes over the credits i have to record all of the jokes i remember i remember this fight happening in my house that is my only story of the tape by the way i have a story of so many it can't compete with henry's tale tales of the tapeses. We need a musical sting for that whenever it comes back. All right, I will. I'll be bringing it out.

Tale of the Tapes. That is such a great sibling argument, of a sibling not understanding how important something is. Now, everybody's got their own screen, or at least in my middle-class upbringing, if it was happening now, me and my brother wouldn't fight over any TV or any streaming thing

we'd just be like well I'll watch Netflix over here and you'll watch Hulu over there or I'll steal something here and you steal something there yeah my sister did not understand I needed to see every individual Moe drawing and tape it

and you had to see it to the Gracie Films logo just in case there was a joke over the sound there I won that fight, by the way. This episode is pretty middle of the road, ultimately, but I had some fun moments. Like I said, I really enjoy the, what was it, by popular demand, we will forego our national anthem. That's my lasting memory from this episode. ESPN actually did a ranking of all the sports episodes back in 2004, way back in the day. Wow, 14 years ago.

You can probably guess what number one is. I would think Homer at the Bath. Homer at the Bath is definitely number one. This is number two. Okay, I can see that. But then the number three and number four is Lisa the Greek, then Danson Homer, and Lisa Nice. And I think I like all of those episodes better than this one.

I like the, well, actually I guess it's as bad as a sports one, but their Super Bowl one was a fun celebrity Super Bowl. That one always kills me because that was the year that the Vikings missed the Super Bowl. And so it was the Broncos versus the Falcons. And that was the one that ends with them celebrating in the locker room with the Denver Broncos. I think there's less fun to be had here because when it's a character participating in a sport, it's more fun when it's a team sport like Team Homer or Lisa on Ice where there's multiple characters playing at once with jokes off of all those characters.

And this, it's just Homer boxing and the joke is the one joke about him being a boxer. And it's a very in the moment thing because it's Mike tyson getting out of jail to fight a guy before being the ear-biting cuckoo man that he'll be a year later when he was still the champ it's very fixed in time you're right yeah which and when boxing still mattered when people cared about boxing a year before it died yeah so it it captures a very specific point in time it does a great job as that as being a yearbook of boxing, as we've shown through so many of our boxing memories we shared in this. But as Marge says, I would rank this somewhere in the middle.

I have one more boxing memory. When my family would get pay-per-views of boxing, and I believe a lot of people chipped in to get that Evander Holyfield-Tyson rematch. And I believe in 1997, right? Yes. It was probably $60 or $70 of 90s money, which is like I can't even imagine renting any sports

event for that now. Well, you would get together. You would have a party. This was a thing back then. You would get a party, order some pizzas, you'd buy the pay-per-view, bring your friends over. You'd get the express written consent of HBO. Well, when we would have parties like that, though, I went to a few, but it was hosted by my friend's brother-in-law, who he was a cable installer.

No, a dish network installer. So you can bet he had access to all of the channels, and we just watched all of it. Though the problem with that is you have to be like, well, I could never hand my remote to a child because I unlocked every channel, and that includes all the porn. Every channel. Oh, every channel. Porn wasn't even that crazy back then. Yeah, but I mean, we were more genteel in 2004. It's true.

So thanks for listening, folks. Kat Bailey is our special guest. Kat, where can we find you? What do you work on? Let us know. It's good being back on the show, guys. If you enjoy my podcast stylings i suggest you check out acts of the blood god the us gamers official rpg podcast we're currently in the middle of a top 25 rpg countdown we really we just did vampire the masquerade at number 22 so we're continuing on down the list and you can find a companion article over on the site so

subscribe to us rate us all that stuff and follow me on Twitter at the underscore catbot, where I periodically talk about sports. We're in the middle of the summer. There's like no sports stuff going on at all. I can go into any bar and be safe. People like me are safe, finally. But training camp starts next week,

Bob, so pretty soon. I know which bars don't have TVs. I can go there and read my manga men will be released before you know it and that's when the football season begins

I cannot wait so yeah thanks for listening folks let's talk about our Patreon it's what funds all of our shows including What a Cartoon

our weekly cartoon podcast and if you go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons you can find out how to help the show for $5 a month that's our

hello welcome to welcome aboard tier as I call it you'll get every episode of this a week ahead of time and ad-free. Every episode of a cartoon a week ahead of time and ad-free, and all of our mini series and bonus podcasts. There is so much going on there. Henry, what is our most recent special thing that we've done? Well, we went through all the deleted scenes of season seven, and there are some really fun ones in there at $5., you get access to the audio version of that, and you can watch our video commentary if you're at the premium $10 level. And not to mention, we have so many amazing Simpsons interviews we've gotten to do with some of our most recent ones

where Mike Reese, who's worked on the show for 30 years and just wrote a new book about it, and Nell Scovel, who wrote the Blowfish episode and wrote her own book. And we have some more fun interviews in the hopper coming. I don't want to spoil anything, but these are huge interviews and we're so happy about them. And they will only be on our Patreon. So if you're interested, we have so much stuff going on there. It's patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons.

All of our miniseries live there and they will live there in the future and there's just so much stuff going on there and our community there is great our website does not have comments for episodes but there are so many great comments happening on the patreon you can just jump right in there and talk to all of your talking simpsons friends i comment all the time and everyone's nice to me finally i am at h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g on twitter if you follow me there you'll see when new episodes go live on all of our podcasts. Make sure to tweet about it there and also share fun Simpsons memes that are going around, such as recently somebody just

found Marge's Chanel suit as a Chanel suit in a garage. It could be faked. You never know. I honestly think it's fake. I don't believe anything on the internet anymore. Somebody might have made it,. I want to believe. Somebody might have made it, but I want to believe that maybe they saw it at an outlet store

somewhere near Ongkabill. I'm a pro wrestling fan. I want to believe all this stuff. But that's me. As for me, I am on Twitter as Bob Servo. And I got a recent note from a helpful listener. I'm not throwing them under the bus, but I agree with them. This is a good note. They said

to me, and I'll leave their name anonymous. I just got this message, by the way. They say, only one thing to say, Bob. Every time you say and listen to my other podcast, Retronauts and Talking Simpsons, I picture a bumper sticker which reads, my other podcast is a Retronauts. I had to say it. It's been driving me mad. So I'm going to find a different

way to say that to stop you from going insane. So another podcast going to find a different way to say that to stop you from going insane. So another podcast I do is Retronauts, Roger. And you can find that at retronauts.com or go to look up Retronauts in your podcast device. It's a classic gaming podcast. We've been going on since 2006, for God's sakes. We're going to be going to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo soon. If you're there, I'll be there and I'll say hi to you.

We can hang out. So thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you next week with Burns, baby Burns. If you're there, I'll be there and I'll say hi to you. We can hang out. So thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you next week with Burns Baby Burns. See you then. People People who need people Are the luckiest people

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