Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Today I Am A Clown With Louis Peitzman

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

We welcome back journalist Louis Peitzman to discuss the sequel to the last podcast he did with us, Like Father, Like Clown! This time around, Krusty deals with his religious background after reconnecting with his Rabbi father to plan an adult bar mitzvah. This somehow leads Homer to getting his own TV show that's a light parody of Bill Maher. How does this tie into a rushed ending with a lot of Mr. T in the first show of production season 15? Learn all about that as we discuss an ep that's Raymond rerun good! Support this podcast and get over 180 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

I am Mike Rowe and I got nothing against celebrities. In fact, I just interviewed Rob Lowe and Jason Alexander and they were terrific, but usually I interview people you've never heard of. The plumber who makes 250 grand a year, the first responders who risk their lives to save complete and total strangers, and the mad scientists who are about to change the world with a better mousetrap. Those are the kinds of people I usually interview on The Way I Heard It, and you're officially invited to give it a listen wherever you listen to podcasts.

Picture this. A snowy morning, and you're staring at where your driveway used to be. Your neighbor's Toyota RAV4 with all-wheel drive cruises by unfazed, making winter look easy. You're thinking, that should be me. Yes, yes it should. It's time to upgrade your winner. It's time to Toyota. Lease a 2025 RAV4 LE AWD from $98 weekly for 40 months at 5.99% with $2,500 down. Visit shoptoyota.ca or your local Ontario Toyota dealer today. This podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash talking simpsons head there to check out

exclusive podcasts like talking Futurama, talk king of the hill, the what a cartoon movie podcast and tons more. I hardly endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that's Raymond rerun good. I'm one of your hosts, the ultimate placeholder Bob Mackie and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who is here with me today as always? At the peak of cuteness, Henry Gilbert! And who is our special guest on the line?

Lewis Pitesman drinking a champagne slim fast cocktail. And this week's episode is Today I Am a Clown. Now I'll teach you my traditions the way my people have passed them down for centuries, through animation! This week's episode originally aired on December 7th, 2003. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history.

Oh! Oh my god! Oh boy, Bobby. Ludacris' stand up tops the charts. Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe's The Last Samurai is at the top of the box office. And The Simple Life is a hit on box television.

So that would be the Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie struggling with regular people jobs and isn't it funny and I think they have a new thing going on or at least some ads campaign of the both of them back together again. I believe they're bringing it back in some form. It's time. I think enough time has passed or we're ready for it again. I believe they're bringing it back in some form. It's time. I think it's now we're ready for it again. It's a retro show like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are now in their 40s like so many attractive people are. I feel like more than any other reality show this one was designed to hate watch it just it just feels you're supposed to watch

it and try to make their heads explode with your brain. Well it's also like I think it's a show that you're meant to watch during a financial crisis to feel upset and angry. And so we're kind of prepping for whatever the next recession will be. That's true. We need more. I guess they're bringing their show back, but we need other shows where we can at least have distaste for the rich, but they own it themselves. They don't just do a reality show now. They just have an Instagram or TikTok feed.

They don't need to go on Fox to have a reality show. Yeah, but I mean, I think that the Real Housewives is still going strong, so we at least have that. We will always have out-of-touch rich people on our television. That's true, I did not make the connection with Real Housewives being still one of the most, like, popular things on TV to this very day.

Well, I will always bring it back to Housewives. So don't you worry. And yes, the ludicrous stand up song, When I Move You Move, just like that. I hadn't seen the music video in a long time. It is a very silly music video. They place his face on a dancing baby's body. That's how silly it gets or ludicrous it gets in that video This period I was so out of touch with pop culture. I barely know about anything. We're talking about it I don't even know if I've seen ludicrous before Henry well have you seen the fast and furious films no Then you're really missing out on some great acting by ludicrous also the last samurai Did you see that one, Bob?

No, and it turns out that movie was incorrect. There were several more to follow. If you don't know it, it's Tom Cruise. It's the classic, like, it's a lot like Dances with Wolves, except it's Tom Cruise goes to Japan and he is the white guy who goes rogue from the American deployment of troops there. And instead, he teams up with the samurai and, and helps them, uh, resist the modernization of Japan. So I just was thinking about it. Cause I went on the Warner Brothers studio tour a few months ago when I was in Los Angeles and they are like, Hey, you know, this alley here, this was the

fake San Francisco Tom Cruise walks through at the beginning of the last samurai, which is like, nobody remembers this or knows any of the things they're talking about. I went to Universal Studios recently and went on the studio tour and it was a little bit depressing. Like when they were referencing shows and movies, it was not as cool as the ones that they referenced like 10, 20 years ago that people had actually seen because like nothing films there anymore. Everything's in Canada. So you can go on a backlot tour and it's like there were once great things here. And now it is a sitcom you've never heard of it somehow.

And it's 12th season and that's it. Yeah, this movie, when it released, I was in an anime club in my college. So I think I just saw the poster with a white guy in the title. Last Samurai and rolled my eyes. It might be good. Has anyone here actually seen the film? have not I thought it was good I was good it's very pretty to look at as wick is the director it's one of those it's very good-looking movie and Tom Cruise is the last samurai like it looks very silly on a cover or ludicrous but Ken Watanabe really is like he's the

character that matters the most in it he He does get a real, you know showcase in it I think it was his big His big debut in American films at least is why he would the next year or two years later He'd be in Batman Begins. It made him more famous it to American audiences So that's what we were all seeing with this episode of The Simpsons aired. S2 And joining us once again is our special guest, Lewis Pitesman. Lewis last joined us for season three's Like Father, Like Clown, and this is basically the sequel to that episode. Lewis Pitesman Kind of. I had seen this. I had seen it in a long time, and I thought it was going

to be more of a sequel given that Jackie Mason was back, but spiritually certainly a sequel. S2 Based on the commentary, it sounds like there were some heavy rewrites on this, given that Jackie Mason was back, but spiritually certainly a sequel. Based on the commentary, it sounds like there were some heavy rewrites on this long after the point where they normally do rewrites, so I feel like a lot of the Jackie Mason material was extracted and what you hear from him later in the episode just seems saying, wonderful, wonderful.

Like they have a Jackie Mason soundboard in front of them. It sounded like they got him, it was a tenuous ability to get Jackie Mason, though then again after this one, he would be very available for the show. Yeah, not to jump too far ahead, but he does come back nine times after this. He wasn't on the show since the season three episode, he's back for this and then he's on nine more times, so I think they really liked having him. Or he really liked paychecks. We may never know. Well, and you know, Lewis, yes, our previous one with you was Crusty and his rabbi father, and now it's him finally getting his bar mitzvah. And I mean, you know, what do you think of the show's balancing of Crusty, like his religious upbringing versus like a secular career?

Watching this, I feel like, which is, this is weird to say about a show with like Jewish writers, but I feel like the show's conception and depiction of Judaism has always been a little bit I don't know what the word for it is. It always feels like they don't quite get it and I don't know if it's because they're just painting in broad strokes, but like I feel like Christianity on the show has been depicted with some nuance over the years and Buddhism and Hinduism. I mean, there's a lot of religious talk that's happened on The Simpsons. The Jewish stuff like never quite lands with me, even though

as a kid I was like, and I try to mention this last time, so excited to have a Jewish character on the show. Yeah, I thought this whole thing was a little strange, not in like an offensive way, just some odd stuff happening Yeah, you're right. The Buddhism episode was basically an informational pamphlet They were airing about the belief system this it's just all of the borscht belt stereotypical stuff you associate with the religion and entertainers that grew up in the religion and we actually we just covered the Adam Sandler film eight crazy nights for our patreon that is also a an ostensibly movie about Hanukkah and Judaism

But it's very afraid of actually touching upon those subject matters or the rituals the beliefs the culture anything like that So basically only Rugrats ever got it right and everything else has been I mean I actually would have liked more of the borscht belt humor stuff in this I feel like the weird thing is it's like just wordplay and one-off jokes about things like, that's a lot of Lotka, which is a good line, but also it's not really a joke or a reference. It's just kind of a fun thing to say. Lyle We also cited the Rugrats Hanukkah special

as the most informational cartoon about Hanukkah ever created. It is. It really is. It taught us both as Gentiles. I never attended a Bar Mitzvah or a Bad Mitzvah. I learned about them from like entertainment. I think the big one before this episode of Simpsons was on Freaks and Geeks. I think they, well, the Sam Levine character is, I think he's referencing a lot, I believe he's like over 13, so he wouldn't get it in the episode, I don't think. Bar Mitzvahs were a really big part of my upbringing. When I was in like seventh and eighth grade, there were usually like two a weekend, and you'd have to kind of balance that or go to the more popular kids, Bar Mitzvah or Bat

Mitzvah, and then you'd have to see who would have the better party because that was certainly for like my reform Jewish upbringing. The real point of the Bar Mitzvah is the party after. Did Mr. T or any Mr. T level stars appear? No, but I remember one kid's Bar Mitzvah because his dad was in like the entertainment industry, had, or maybe like a sports agent, had the Laker girls. And that was like a big hit. You would have like, this was also like in LA,

you would occasionally have like a special guest like that. Because you also, you're competing with other bar mitzvahs. So you have to have a selling point. Yeah, you mentioned the bar mitzvah thing too. Like have you been to any adult bar mitzvahs, which this is all based around too? I don't think that I have. I feel like it's not super common, obviously, but it's not like unheard of. On this season of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, one of the

women is having an adult bat mitzvah. Oh, wow. So it does happen. How accurate would you say to the stress before a bar mitzvah is the Coen Brothers film a serious man? I think that movie captures Jewish anxiety in general better than any other so I would say quite accurate. That is such a great movie I actually didn't see it until this year I missed out at theaters and it just sat in my back burner, but can you believe a Coen Brothers movies really good?

It's shocking shocking. I'm gonna watch it just for all the F-Troop references. The time when F-Troop comes on TV in A Serious Man is a major plot point in that movie. We covered before, you mentioned, in the Fatherlike Clown, that's where Crusty became Jewish. It is something, they've integrated in the character sometimes and not other times, but it wasn't part of Iowa's creative because he's based on a Christian clown.

Well, combo of a Christian clown and then a non-denominational Midwestern bozo. It's Rusty Nails in Oregon. He was an outright Christian clown. And then Bob Bell, I think, just believes in his sponsors, really. He believes in franchising that clown. I think clowns feel inherently gentile to me,

but I, you know, obviously, like Father Like Clown was jazz singer inspired, there's certainly a history of Jewish entertainers, so it makes sense in that way, even if clowning, for whatever reason, feels like a thing that Jews don't do. I'm sure there's like a Jewish clowns out there who are very offended by me saying that,

but that's just my perception. I do wonder when you mentioned like the writers on it. I think not that I keep encounter anything, but they've had a mix of Jewish writers, but not a majority of it. And in those classic ones, like I think in that season three, I would think the only major writers on it were Jay Kogan and Mike Reese, I think. Of course, James L. Brooks is the grand poobah of the entire company. So there's people there to say, hey, this is something about Jewish culture and represented

well. But at its core, maybe less actually culturally Jewish. Yeah, I think for me, it's just like, I guess I have that blanket assumption with any sort of comedy show, especially from, you know, the era when it started that there would be a fair amount of Jewish writers in the room. It's cycled in and out, of course. I think that like also, you know, Jewish jokes kind of transcend religion. It's more when I see something like this where it's like is a little bit more about Jewish

culture that it feels weirdly out of touch, or maybe just not interested in delving into it you know how I took this episode a little bit a little wonky but they threw in a real bar mitzvah at the end so that makes up for it yeah we don't know really what they threw out of this episode so late in production it sounds like a lot of the act three in the back half was heavily rewritten and reanimated, but Joel H. Cohen, the writer of this episode, the original pitch was, the Simpsons are going to Israel and they're going there to see Crusty's Bar Mitzvah. That was the pitch.

It ended up not being a travelogue episode, probably for the best because they had just done the UK episode a few episodes ago, so we've seen the travel one happen within recent memory. But this episode did win a Jewish Image Award, and it's one of those awards where they're not documented anywhere, there's no list of them, so you have to take their word for it that they did win this. But this one that award and also for his performance in this episode, Dan Castellana won the Emmy for outstanding voiceover performance for doing Krusty and Homer in this episode. Well congrats to him and the whole team for the, was it Jewish Image Award? Jewish Image Award, which I think they've even changed the name of the award since they won it.

Never heard of it, sounds prestigious, that's great to hear. I think you can pretty easily win those kinds of awards as long as you're not actively bad for the Jews as long as you're just like You know vaguely positive. I am very relieved they didn't go to Israel in this episode. Although they did do that later, right? That is a thing that happened many seasons on the line Yes, they saved it for season 21 in I'm certainly not uncomfortable episode to talk about That's a Baron Cohen is the guest in it. He is their tour guide. Fantastic. We'll not be back for that one.

Okay. Officially taking you off our list of potential guests when we get to that one. Who likes Borat? Who do we know who likes that fun character? I believe there were no deleted scenes on the DVD, and I couldn't find a script for this episode, so I would have loved to have known what they cut. The most interesting

thing I heard them mention on the commentary was maybe it was table read draft, but I think instead of the politically incorrect TV show parody, I think they were going to have it be, I am quoting Matt Selman here, a Jewish writer on the commentary. He said the idea was Bart the Shabbos goi, meaning the non-Jewish person is employed to do things for Jewish people on the Sabbath, if I'm getting that correct? Yeah, that's like an Orthodox concept for people who are like truly, you know, because they won't turn out lights or anything. They need someone who will, you know, do little tasks that need to get done on Shabbat. I think that, I don't know, either way, I feel

like, and this is, I have not, I've seen these episodes before, but I haven't, I don't really rewatch this era of the show as much. I actually was kind of impressed by the fact that the B plot here actually is integrated into the larger plot, that it's sort of all part of one whole, which I guess the Chabascoi would have been as well. Because I feel like when I watch episodes from this time the B-plot is often so much its own thing that it feels completely alien to the overall episode. AC Yeah, I think that might be a preference of Al Jean because even back in seasons 3 and 4 the B-plots were often completely disconnected. It's hard to remember where the Boy Who Cries Wolf parody falls into the normal episodes and things like that. STORM That's kind of classic sitcom, I guess. I mean,

you would have something that's totally separate, but my preference is to have some sort of connectedness there. ACKERMAN Yeah, I think it was our theory that Seinfeld, the popularity of Seinfeld, really kicked off the sitcom-clever writing arms race, where the plots always had to intertwine and surprise you at the end with how they collided. STORM I think for me it's also just like that sometimes the A plot or main plot or whatever it feels like it's kind of getting, you know, it's not really having enough time to develop because there's so much focus on something that feels

disconnected. I think here this felt a little rushed to me for whatever reason, maybe because it just happened very quickly and suddenly it was over and they threw in the little bar mitzvah bit at the end. But yeah, I mean, it feels a little short. I forgot that this is like 30% a Homer gets a TV show episode. Yeah.

And like, as soon as it popped up on the episode, I was like, oh my God, right, this is the Bill Maher parody one as well. I remembered all of the crusty stuff, not the, well, even to call it the Bill Maher parody one as well. I remembered all of the Krusty stuff, not the, well, even to call it a Bill Maher parody, is like, isn't really that specific either. No, no, it's oddly broad, and it does feel like Krusty himself

is trying to rewrite the episode at the end, because there's five minutes left, he's like, hey, what if I got a bar mitzvah? What if we end the episode like this? I think too, they don't say it on the commentary, but my bet is that after they did the season 14 episode, Dude, Where's My Ranch, which starts with a return appearance of Rabbi Krastovsky, except it's voiced by Dan Casolinetta there, that was where it hit them like, you think

we could ask back Jackie Mason and just do a whole episode around this character again? Though, like you said, he's lightly in this episode compared to his first appearance. That's for sure. Yeah. And he's certainly not central in any way to the plot. He's there for support. There's not much going on that he needs to do. And after an entire DVDs worth of holdover episodes, because this is on disc two, we

are finally an actual production season 15. Hooray we've made it. Yes if you're somebody who reads all the codes of the episode numbers then you'll see this is the first in season 15 production so this is where you might think sometimes I was thinking especially with how quickly this episode like wraps up with a rush ending it would have made me think oh this must be another old overwrite, but no, this is them fresh at the start of the season. No, after their break, they just forgot how to write an ending.

And directed by Nancy Cruz, who is one of the better directors at this time, though she barely gets to talk on the commentary, but there's some funny drawings in this one. I think this is a good looking by season 15 standards episode. So we begin first with a chalkboard gag, mocking people who are over 40 and single and they're not funny. Is this a specific I missed? I think this is a joke about sex in the city and how it's not funny. Oh, okay. Oh, I didn't get that. I thought it was just mean. I like that your explanation makes sense.

The Simpsons does love to complain about other shows not being funny, I'd have to again I say like you know glass houses guys. At this point they had at least one really mean joke about sex in the city. That's right yeah. Is that the one where they said they all sound like gay guys? Oh yeah I think Patty's like it's a show about four women who talk like gay men or something like that. That's a good joke though. Yeah. Then we have a couch gag that's a whole Adam West Batman thing where Marge, Lisa, and Maggie just all share the Yvonne Craig Batgirl costume, Bart is Robin, and Homer's Batman. So get the specifics there.

And we then, boy, this is really, we're going to say this every episode, but they have so much music. Just to sell a joke about peeing into a toilet, they licensed Ring of Fire. I feel like there are production issues with this episode just because of how heavily it was rewritten. This establishing shot of the house is insane. They established the hell out of this house. I know where the Simpsons live.

I've seen it before, but it feels like, God, we have to kill 10 seconds up front to show the house, play the song everyone likes in front of the house, and then we transition to the episode. I feel like they were filling time here. Instead of a rushed opening, like it's the 60 second version of the opening two, like the fact that we get a chalkboard gag shows you they're light on time. And I thought on my first rewatch of it where I also forgot all of the opening stuff, I thought, oh, okay. So Maggie locked in the bathroom, that's your act one on ramp and then that's gonna lead to like no It's like on ramp one to the next on ramp to act one time killer to then hand off to the main story Was this still the era when they would do the extended couch gag?

I guess all couch gags at this point were kind of extended. They're about to get longer Yeah I feel that as we get towards the end of the 2000s into the 2010s They realized the viruleness of couch gags and how they can advertise the show and that's when they really lean into the longer ones with Often guest artists coming on to create their own the episode feeling short to me is probably just because of how Drawn out the opening is compared to the very quick ending just gives it the feel of being like blink and it's over I think more time is spent on Homer needing to piss than Krusty's bar mitzvah. I think so.

Well, equally important things. I could be wrong, but I feel like the guest thing or the going viral openings really started with the Kesha one. I think that was everybody on dig and Buzzfeed were all talking about it it in case you missed it They reanimated the entire opening to Kesha's tick-tock the song that was a song before it was a social media platform That's full of like multiple problematic things in it now. That's none of her fault. It was a different time

So yes The family is lined up to pee Homer for this joke has to forget that they have a in their primary bathroom They have a bathroom already, but everybody's waiting to use the hallway bathroom, typically used as the kids bathroom. And Homer gets back cuts to cut in front of Lisa, and this is when they realize that, oh wait, it's Maggie in there.

And I think there's some okay fun of like, Maggie nearly being killed or maimed while they try to save her. The idea that baby blood is pink is funny. Yeah, that got the biggest laugh out of me of the whole episode. I don't actually know if I laughed again. I did laugh at that. I like how when they knock open the medicine cabinet,

like pills are surrounding her and like the clippers and a razor just barely miss her. They're about to give up. Homer then is getting bashed against the wall of the door. It's not breaking You're not hitting hard enough as Homer says and then Lisa opens the door because she tried the coat hanger again It doesn't understand why they only try ideas once which feels like a comment on the sitcom writing of the show Oh, I did like that joke. It just yeah Why don't we ever try things more than once it's just because for the sake of the viewer would be boring if they're like

Let's try it again And then they spend the entire episode Don't we ever try things more than once. It's just because for the sake of the viewer, it would be boring if they're like, let's try it again. And then they spend the entire episode jimmying the lock with a coat hanger. After they've killed a minute with that, then Dr. Hibbert appears to give them the actual act one storyline. Dr. Hibbert?

Is someone serious, LL? Oh, I wish. No, I'm here because of Bob Puccione over there. Two months ago, Santa's little helper paid a booty call to my purebred poodle, Rosa Barks. And he had his eyes on her prize. I'm going to drop that analogy now. Oh, well, I'm glad you think they're cute,

because they're your problem now. You just lost the box, pal. Wait, Santa's little helper had puppies before. And then we got him neutered. We did. Elmo took him. Didn't you? Yeah, well, funny thing about that that on our way to the clinic I decided to give him a night his wang would never forget sorry while the clip was playing I got up because I forgot this is just sitting

behind me in my bookcase there is the exact book Lisa gets out to double-check when the episode took place. And hey, oh look! Look, David Silverman drew a bard inside of my book. Well, well, well! I'm done bragging. I really like that they used, what is it, a complete guide to Our Favorite Family? Yeah, the very first volume of the episode guide series, which I think they stopped putting

out new editions around like when they covered the season 20 or 25 maybe. That book was a, it was like, you know, my Bible growing up. So I did appreciate seeing it. It's a good bit. I flipped through mine to the point that it was destroyed. I think I, I wish I still had my, my childhood one. You are correct, Bob on season 20. I charted it.

So there was that one in 99 in 2002, they would make Simpsons Beyond Forever, the updated one. 2005 is Step Beyond Forever, continued yet again. And 2010 is when they released the gigantic hardcover edition of it that goes up to season 20. And I don't believe they have released any after that. That's the one I have. I am not going to go over to my shelf behind me to pick it up because it weighs like seriously 50 pounds. So when they did that one that was like a collection of all of them because the second one they released I believe was just additional seasons. It was not, I had that one also. I think that was not like one through whatever it was it was just nine through whatever

yeah the Beyond Forever is just three or four more seasons that they had yet to cover yeah yeah well if they want some other right the remaining seasons they should probably hire you to do it I am listening we're listening to the we are we are a living episode guide yeah we're cutting out the middle man They are redundant in the world of Wikipedia. Their layout was beautiful. They look gorgeous and they were full of new original art by Bill Morrison and other Simpsons artists. It's a great looking guide to The Simpsons for sure.

You're so right that we've lost the art of episode guides. I used to love an episode guide. I remember when Entertainment Weekly, I believe, had a Buffy one that they published that was just like, like, we don't have that anymore because like, yeah, you can go on Wikipedia and do that and every episode can be streamed, you know, now so we want to remind ourselves and go watch the episode on Disney Plus or what have you. So we've definitely lost that but I miss it. I bring back episode guides. So yeah, especially before the internet. Now when I bought that episode guide I was just holding up, I actually kind of regretted it

because I bought it, I flipped through it, and I realized I have the internet. Why did I spend $20 of this? I'm 13, $20 is a lot of money. But before the internet, when I bought the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode guide, it was great because I had no idea there were that many episodes,

and I had no idea what they were or what they were about because that was a very Unavailable show at the time, but The Simpsons largely more available and both shows are extremely documented online. I Also really like they had great Listicles in them are just you know little articles of every Troy McClure movie named Or they'd have tons of little things in there that were like bonuses to sandwich in between seasons I also like that It's being used by Lisa to be an annoying fan who points out that one they've done this before and two this is inaccurate Because he definitely should have been neutered after two dozen and one Greyhounds. Mm-hmm

Also, I looked up what a poodle Italian Greyhound mix looks like. It's a pootallion apparently is what it's called. We can do better than that name. We gotta send that one back. Unfortunately, Homer is just becoming Jim Belushi in this episode because the scene of him and his dog and he's saying, we're gonna get you laid. That's actually a scene in Canine, the 80s comedy movie.

So Homer's really just becoming an according to Jim style father figure here. Homer going out dog sex partying seems more of a Peter Griffin move I don't know. Sorry I'm asking you all these questions that you surely cover on other weeks of your podcast but because I haven't revisited this era where were we in like Family Guy time when this was happening? Family Guy canceled I think at least for a year I think it was cancelled in the summer of 02 or something like that It was it was actually cancelled twice and that's not back until spring of 05 and then it becomes gigantic

Remind me when this was this is November of 03 so Family Guy was off the air at this point There was a brief Family Guy drought if you can believe it Well, it's so Homer being a little bit more Peter Griffin-y might have been filling a need people had, you think of it that way. Though on Adult Swim, it's going great. Actually, I wonder, with this very Jewish episode, I wonder where this is compared to the Adult Swim airing of the lost episode of Family Guy Wish Upon a Weinstein.

I wonder where it matches up. Oh hey, and actually, that aired on Adult Swim basically a week before this aired. Holy cow! Yeah, so November 2nd, so five days before this aired, the final Family Guy aired. And both pretty close to Hanukkah. I don't know when it was that year.

It moves around, but surely it was around that time. Also, I like that Hibbert is full of references. He has so many lined up Bob Puccioni Rosa Barks, and then eventually he's just like, all right enough of this. I'm dropping this now I forgot where Rosa Barks came from when I added her to my simpsons town and tapped out rip I just thought it was a fun dog name forgot the origin What's it like in the sun setting days of Tapped Out? You know, I had stopped going on there because it had become tedious. I mean, it was always tedious, but it had become more tedious and yet would con me into

spending money on things I don't need because it was like, surely I need this character I don't remember from season 22 to do tasks. And when I found out it was ending, I was like, I will just never log in again. I have not gone back. My town is abandoned and soon it will be gone forever. I'm still sort of surprised. I'm sure there are rights things I don't understand about that, but people were spending money on that game and it required very little effort, I feel like on EA's part. So I don't know what happened to make them end it. My personal hope is that it means that Disney has decided to partner with a

different company to make some new Simpsons game somewhere else. So it means they let their EA license lapse for that reason. Yeah. I was hoping that it meant something Disney wise. I also, you know, I have this dream that they will eventually do Trius of horror themed thing at Disney for Halloween because you know Universal is not doing anything with Simpsons for Halloween as I learned when I went to Halloween Horror Nights so I don't know. I'm waiting for Disney to save me and save the

Simpsons which is never a good place to be mentally. Yeah I'm guessing with Tapped Out, Disney saw the deal that was in place when they acquired Fox and all the properties and they thought well well, this is making lots of money, but we're not getting enough of a cut. What if we partnered with someone else who would give us more of a cut? Let's end this service completely and figure out something else. I hope I have to start from scratch somewhere and spend real money on creating a town. That's a good use of my time and limited income. The Simpsons will be right back. Climate change. A problem so huge, how could I ever make a difference?

I'm Marco Chiaunovet, climate reporter for the Toronto Star. I meet a lot of smart people doing really inspiring things in this space all the time. Small things that add up to big climate benefits. Small things, big climate. Wherever you get your favorite podcasts. The Climate Solutions podcast is brought to you by SmartFlow from Enbridge Sustain. Whether it's towing your big toys

or hauling gear for the job site, the Toyota Tundra handles it all without breaking a sweat. By the end, you'll be standing there wishing you could high five that truck. That's what we call being Tundra struck. It's time to be impressed. It's time to Toyota. Lease a 2025 Tundra 4x4 crew max SR from $141 weekly for 28 months at 4.99% with $5,800 down. Visit shoptoyota.ca for your local Ontario Toyota dealer today. I pity the fool who doesn't enjoy this podcast. Hi everybody, it's Henry Gilbert welcoming you to the break.

A big thank you this week to our guest Lewis Pitesman. Everybody should check out all the cool stuff he's doing. He just has published a few new articles that are really cool and you should be keeping up with him on Twitter and Blue Sky. There's links to his accounts in this episode description, so please check those out and thanks as always to Lewis for doing the show. Always awesome to have him on. And if you enjoy our discussion of today, I am a clown, then you should be checking out all of the cool stuff that we do on patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons because that's how we do this as our full-time jobs if you would like to hear ad free podcasts no ads like this one or the

others you hear in this and get to hear they episodes a week ahead of time you can hear next week's episode right now then you need to sign up at patreon.com slash talking simpsons not to mention that the five dollars a month also gets you access to our monthly exclusive podcast of us covering Talking Futurama and Ta King of the Hill. Going into those shows, just like we do an episode of The Simpsons, you've missed so many episodes of King of the Hill and Futurama that we have covered. Plus we've also done that for every episode of The Critic, every episode of Mission Hill,

and many of our favorite episodes of Batman the Animated Series, plus tons of other bonuses too. Check it all out at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. But if you want something even nicer than sniffing flowers like Krusty, then you need to sign up at the premium level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Our big bonus podcast there, What a Cartoon Movie, is what you get for $10 a month in addition to all of the cool stuff you get at the $5 level. We talk about an animated feature film super in-depth just like we do in Episode of the Simpsons, and the most recent ones have

been very holiday themed. If you like all this talk about Hanukkah and Jewish tradition, I think you'll enjoy our chat about 8 Crazy Nights. Not just the chat about the 2D not so successful Adam Sandler film, but also we chat with Lou Morton the co-writer of the original Hanukkah song that just turned 30 years old. And this month we'll be covering Frozen, the wintery wonderland of a modern Disney classic that me and Bob have a ton of fun talking about and you can only hear the full Podcasts that are over five hours long at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons We have been doing those for six whole years and you can hear all the entire back Catalog for just ten bucks a month with a new in each month if you go to patreon.com slash talking Simpsons

If you want other holiday themed ones, we've done we've done Tokyo Godfathers, we've done Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, we've done the Muppets Christmas Carol, and there's so many other awesome ones there that you can only hear if you are a $10 subscriber, including our longest one ever, six and a half hours hear it all at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. I wonder if this is like a Toxic Guy thing, but my dad also did not like our cats getting neutered We did he didn't get neutered when we had him But when I was you know in my teens and we had cats we just got him We're like, well, we got to get him neutered like it's the responsible thing and he was grousing about it the whole time It sounds like a toxic guy thing. There's a sitcom episode about that, but now I can't remember what show it was

I forget what show it was. I'm gonna quietly look it up separately. It's a thing that has come up on a show before. Well, here after they spent all that money on Ring of Fire, now they're spending for the master tapes of Donna Summer's Last Dance here. That can't be cheap either. We're like 60K up front in this episode, three minutes in. I figured it out, it's the Wonder Years.

There is an episode about getting the dog neutered, and there is anxiety over that. Because the dog's balls are a metaphor, obviously, for something. I think people may have a hard time with the concept. At least it's a 60s dad saying it, but no. Sure, yeah. I mean, yeah, I can't imagine having a problem with it now, but what do I know?

Well, Homer's generation of dads didn't grow up with Bob Barker drilling it into their head every day. They just saw swinging dog balls left and right. I guess it depends on which generation Homer is part of in that given episode. I mean not to be crude but when I'm out and I see a dog with testicles I'm like what's going on? Is there some religious belief that's preventing you from doing this? They are very in-your-face. It's shocking. Yeah. You can see why British people use it as an exclamation. from doing this? They are very in your face. It's shocking.

You can see why British people use it as an exclamation. It's like, yeah, it's hard to imagine those dog bollocks. So yes, Homer takes him to the red-like district for dogs, which if there's one thing comedy writers like other than Jewish wordplay, it is porno wordplay. They really love to make up funny porno titles, especially. You can tell that it's like digitally placed on, so they must not have liked the ones they did the first time,

because it's so clearly just pasted on digitally. We've got Behind the Doggy Door, I assume a parody of the classic hardcore pornography Behind the Green Door. You've got Long Dog Silver, I'm assuming a reference to the porno actor Long Dong Silver, and On Golden Retriever meanwhile sounds like the dog porn parody of On Golden Pawn. Yeah they couldn't think of an actual

third porn to parody. I think they they probably knew a lot internally but they didn't want to let on that they knew that many porn titles. I can't think of another porn title to parody. I want to know what filthy references they had to get rid of mm-hmm. Well. We do have nuts landing I I only got this reference to behind the green door because it's used for a joke in the Cannonball run the film like it's Jackie Chan is caught watching it while he's driving on Cannonball run and that's how I learned it's like oh is caught watching it while he's driving on Cannonball Run, and that's how I learned. It's like, oh, that's like apparently,

everybody would just do Deep Throat is the reference, but it was like a war, it was like the Pepsi to Deep Throat in the 70s of mainstream hardcore porn. Though I feel like a lot of humans are going to the dog porno theater without dogs in Springfield. Yes, I think so. It should be like Chuck E. Cheese, you need a dog to get in.

They're gonna stamp your hand in your dog's paw, you have to leave with the same dog. And then I really think the producers are enjoying being bad boys here of having just an image of Homer paying a sex worker on screen. They just get away with that, they let him play air hockey with her to make sure it's clear,

but they weren't being naughty boys there. Too bad it's digital. You could buy a cell of this if it wasn't. I mean, I think that between that and the reference to Krusty doing coke, it did feel a little bit pushing the envelope. Again, in the time when Family Guy was off the air. Yeah.

After he heads into Noiseland Arcade and hooks up, Santa's a little helper with his sex worker as well. It's the next morning at Nut's Landing. And then after all that, Homer can't do it. And he makes a dog promise him something, which he takes as a verbal agreement. Should point out Nut's Landing is a parody of Nut's Landing, which is a spinoff of Dallas.

So, almost as old a reference as behind the green door. When I lived in Kent, Ohio, a college town, in the mid to late aughts, there was a daycare center called Totts Landing, and I thought, driving by every day, no one's going to get that reference. And it hasn't had a revival unlike other shows. I guess Dallas got a revival, but not a Notts Landing. Maybe the Dallas one was not successful enough to get into a Notts Landing revival, too. I think it got a revival but not a Nots Landing. Maybe the Dallas one was not successful enough to get into a Nots Landing revival too. I think it ran for quite a while.

Yeah, Nots Landing less of a property people recognize. And we cut back to Homer strangling his dog, which is another thing I feel like Mac Grady if he was around would have said, okay, number one, Homer cannot hire a sex worker. Number two, he cannot strangle the dog on screen. Matt Grady really does not like animal abuse, but they are trying to stop Homer from strangling the dog, which they do not do later when Bart is strangled. And so despite this being all of Homer's fault, Bart says it's the kid's responsibility

to get rid of these dogs, which leads to them. First, we see the crazy cat lady is so established that they don't even need to say her name To cut to her for a joke here though Would a crazy cat lady also want to collect dogs or would she think she just want cat just an animal hoarding in general It feels like I think she's cat specific. I feel like that's a bridge too far for me Crazy cat lady has a specific connotation and I don't think dog fits into that personally And so the kids hand off the dogs they hand them off to Willie they hand them off to Snake.

One can assume these dogs all die after this episode because you never see them again. After all that we cut to Krusty's home after they're being given away and Snake at least loves the dog. I want to believe we don't see Snake's home life enough. Willie we see enough we know he doesn't have a dog, but let's hope Snake at his, wherever his hideout is, he always has this cute dog there. We then cut to Krusty's home and I'm always a fan of lonely, sad Krusty in his mansion. It's always funny to me. Apparently the house was designed to look like Jerry Belford's house in King of Comedy, the film, King of Comedy. I see that there. I think the character of Krusty at home, he has so much to

boring regular life Jerry Lewis. It feels fitting to get that. You, Bob, did you just watch that film recently as prep for watching The Joker? A couple months ago, but then we decided to not watch The Joker. This time Krusty is channel flipping, which is a thing people used to do. If this joke confuses you now with modern eyes. I still do it in hotels. I end up flipping to Guy Fieri, whatever, every time I do it, but I do intend to flip through channels. I do some late night Pluto flipping. That does emulate it pretty good. Also, you know recently I made a whole reference to free V on our Beetlejuice podcast

And a week after that episode goes live Amazon ends free V. There is no more free V on Amazon now It's just being folded into the general prime stuff now Well, I P free V all the free V originals gone Here's crusty in his sad home life bad boring saw it on the plane rerun rerun Telemundo me turned it down ABC banned from the set lame lame Let's see, champagne or Slim Fast? Boy, that really passes the time. Wanna puppy? He's at the peak of cuteness. You can nuzzle me all night. That's enough. I said that's enough! That really passes the time is a great joke

but it also makes me think of a lot of the content in this episode. That's true. Yeah. That whole dog set piece, ah that really passes the time. I credit to Nancy Cruz in there and her team they got all the specifics on Krusty's upper body I think in every scene like his pacemaker scar is sticking out of the top of his undershirt the way it should and later when he's shirtless we're gonna see all the other specifics too. They sometimes forget the kettle skull birthmark but it's here in this episode. They also got Slim kettle skull birthmark, but it's here in this episode. They also got Slimfest very accurate. So, you know, all around attention to detail.

Very impressive. They're not afraid of getting sued yet for a specific drawing like that. Yeah. And in the 10 years since Cresta gets canceled, he learned the difference between diet milkshakes and regular milkshakes. Right. The giving him the puppy gives him something for a tiny bit, mainly just, and all of that just for an excuse for him to leave his home and go somewhere, which happens to be the

Jewish neighborhood of Springfield. I would call it the Lower East Side of Springfield that they identified in Lisa's first word where Homer Marge and Bart live in that flashback, which that episode is set in 1983 and they just did a new Simpsons where Homer is a child in 1982. So how does that work exactly? But yes, this Jewish neighborhood, it definitely feels pulled from like old New York specifics, I would say. Yeah. I think regardless of what era they're setting it in is certainly of a different time. This is where all of that wordplay you were mentioning, Louis, comes in here. We've got LL Beanie, which sells yarmulkes.

I can't believe it's not Trave. I'm sorry if I mispronounced that, but that means a non-kosher food, right? Yes. Yeah. Though when I looked it up, the Yiddish word, it's spelled differently in Google searches I did for it. Those are, you know, transliterations of words that are spelled with a different alphabet. So there are multiple spellings of everything, including things like Hanukkah.

Fantastic Shlomo's, Peus trims, two for one, which that's a good joke because they come in a pair always, right? And so you first cut them both together. That's clever. A lot of me saying that's clever, but not laughing. A parody of the Supercuts rival Fantastic Sam's. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah.

Don't get your hair cut there. Or it's Supercuts. This walk of fame of Jewish celebrities does feel like the Hanukkah song research we just did for Eight Crazy Nights, which listeners, if you haven't listened yet, we talked with one of the co-writers of it, Lew Morton, about how they wrote that song and the pre-internet research they did to get all the lists on there. Lew Morton's story of being a Jewish writer and writing what is the Hanukkah

song I thought was really, really fun. Look back on it. So give that a listen, folks. I hadn't thought about how hard it would be to not be able to click on the Wikipedia list of notable Jewish celebrities. I think he names the book, I can't remember. He said it was a book that was in most Jewish homes growing up then, of a book of this famous person's Jewish or that one. That's also just like when you grow up Jewish in the 80 80s and 90s like kind of a common topic of conversation It's like you know everyone who's Jewish. That's like if you're Canadian, you know, everyone who's Canadian because it's a point of pride

I'm not surprised that someone wrote it down at some point I've also experienced that with my Filipino husband who he knows who like every celebrity who is from the Philippines or has ethnicity Like including sadly Rob Schneider, I feel like. You might not wanna claim that one. Yeah, no, no. Don't dismiss the entire race of people just because of Rob Schneider. Yes, yeah.

He's also Lithuanian, let's talk about them. Yeah. And as Krusty takes a walk down the street, he is upset with what he sees. Hey, the Jewish walk of fame. Here, go on Sandy Koufax. I lost 10 grand when he wouldn't pitch on Yom Kippur. I did five shows that night.

Okay, boy, let's find my star. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Albert Einstein, Lauren Michaels, Sherry Lewis, Lamb Chop. I'm a bigger name than Chyam Potok. What is he, some kind of Klingon? I had to Google who that was, of course. Chyam Potok? Yeah. You didn't have to read The Chosen in school at any point? I did not, or watch the 1981 film adaptation either. Not good. It's funny because the joke that follows immediately is the song gag where the Chosen in school at any point. I did not, or watch the 1981 film adaptation either.

Not good. It's funny because the joke that follows immediately is the son gag where the Chosen get chosen. So just a reference to his book title, I assume. Well, also just the Jews are just the chosen people. Either way, but the book I read, it was like, I think it was ninth grade assigned reading, like summer reading before going into high school.

And I just did not have a good time with it. I noted that they made sure to get in John Lovett's his name in there. Star of the Al Jean co-created the critic John Lovett. It gets to be on the Walk of Fame. Of course, number one is Woody Allen on it. Not everybody, but okay. I like that Krusty, his distaste for Sandy Koufax

is like the anti-Semitic thing people said about him back then. That hateful people were like, oh, but the team lost because he wouldn't play on a high holiday. But Krusty agrees with that statement. For different, more selfish reasons. So that makes it OK. He did five shows that day. I did not know that about Sherry Lewis either. She's also like a born Carney.

Her dad went on Carney, but her dad was was a magician as well as also like a legitimate businessman too. I think it sounds like he's in the mafia. So this is when Crusty, he's gonna ask for getting on the Walk of Fame. I tried to see if there was one of these in real life. I did see in Manhattan there is a Yiddish Walk of Fame, but I don't know if there's there's a more specific just Jewish person Walk of Fame. There's the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but I don't know if there's a more specific, just Jewish person Walk of Fame. There's the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which has plenty of overlap with a Jewish Walk of Fame.

There is a Canadian, or at least in Vancouver, there's a Vancouver Walk of Fame. That's nice, man. I wonder how expensive it is to get on those compared to the, you always hear like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's a big chunk of change and usually just done as like part of a promotional rollout of something. I mean, it's comforting to know that I don't think anyone can buy a star, but you're basically just buying a star.

It's not awarded based on merit. Yes, actually when you're in Vancouver, check out the BC Walk of Fame featuring people like Jim Valance and Rocket Norton, also Nickelback. Oh, wow. and Rocket Norton, also Nickelback. Oh, wow. And this is when Crusty goes to make his case to be on the Walk of Fame, and this is where he learns he does not meet the criteria.

Well, of course you deserve a star, Crusty. Let me just ask you a few questions. Full name? Hershel Pinkes Yorukham Krastovsky. Good, good. Circumcision? And then some. Date of Bar Mitzvah?

Well, I, uh, you see, the truth is, uh, I never had one. No Bar Mitzvah. In the eyes of God and the Springfield Jewish Walk of Fame committee, you are not a Jewish man. Now see here, do you know how much I donate to the Benei Brith? Actually, I do. Goodbye. Krusty, what's wrong?

I just found out I'm not Jewish. Oh, I was turned down by all those country clubs for nothing. Well, you're still my hero. So what? Everything's changed. I thought I was a self-hating Jew, but it turns out I'm just a plain old anti-semite. They have so much to discuss. Ugh.

Didn't he just become governor at this point in time? Oh yeah. Yeah, the recall election would have been this November. Or no, it would have been that summer, wouldn't it? I forget when he became governor, but the day he became governor, sorry, November 17th, so it is just 10 days away. Wow. Yeah.

Feels a little unfair to Schwarzenegger, I'll say that. I totally agree. I was going to say the same thing, Louis, because he spent, I think, since the facts about his father came out, he spent so much time distancing himself from that, saying how he doesn't agree with it, et cetera, et cetera. And now he was an early-aughts Republican, which means he's essentially a modern liberal today. So he's fun.

He's great. I remember seeing several viral videos in the last eight years of him talking about how disappointed he was, like mentioning the Nazis that he grew up around that saying, you know, how the shame he feels of that in his past. But yeah, back then easy joke to make, he spends time. I do recall during his campaign, there was some like old interview quote that surface of him saying like that

Hitler didn't do everything wrong or something. He had some light compliment for Hitler that certainly was used against him. And now that feels like quaint, right? First of all, the idea that someone would only give a light compliment to Hitler and then the idea that it would be damaging to them in any way. That it had to come with now they don't even couch couch it in, of course what he did was bad, but that's all gone now, the preamble. I'm really tired of hearing about Hitler.

I'm sick of that guy. Keeps coming up over and over again. I know. Yeah, I'm seeing reports from the era that he allegedly praised Hitler in a 1975 interview. So this was 30 years before he became governor. Wasn't his English was shaky back then? You know, right? I mean, maybe he meant something else. He thought Hitler meant Jesus and it was really confusing. And hey, like we said, he has worked very hard since then, especially the last eight years to make very clear how much he hates

Nazism and fascism rising in some other countries too. Like he got opinions on it. I think the I thought I was a self-hating Jew, but it turns out I'm just a plain old anti-Semite line is really good. So I would prefer it to stand on its own outside of the Rainier Wolf Castle joke. That could have closed it out. I like that it already builds on that he didn't get to all those country clubs for nothing when he wasn't even Jewish. This is where we come back from the commercial break and you know, like, Krusty is feeling this like lack of importance in his life because he was never bar mitzvahed. I was questioning like, okay, wait a minute, just like how Lisa says it,

like, wait, you weren't, but it isn't in the flashback in like Father, like Clown. He does do the blessing at the table that starts with some of the same words, which again, I don't know these things, but I'm just saying he says them there. At one point in this episode, when does he do a blessing in this episode? I can't remember, but it's like the wrong blessing. Oh, you know, again, like I think they're going for absolute accuracy here. And he should be honored by being a crossword puzzle clue, which I think I still see people excited about that. It's an honor. I guess you do need to be a New York Times crossword puzzle thing, I guess, than just like

any old crossword puzzle. The standards are a lot lower elsewhere. Yeah, I don't know where people magazine ranks on the crossword puzzle tier. What would you guys rather be referenced in a question on jeopardy or the New York Times crossword puzzle? Jeopardy clue. New York Times unfunny podcast. This is where Lisa starts explaining Jewish tradition for, you know, people who

don't know, which they have a good explanation for that later of how she knows so much. I like to imagine it began when she started researching Judaism for debates with Rabbi Christofsky in the previous episode. Oh, and if I may continuity complain here, it was shown in Bart the Fink that Krusty's only middle name was Schmoykal Christofsky. Pinkus Yeruchem is brand new and it's on the wikis they just say his name is Herschel Schmoykel Pinkish Yeruchem Christofsky which is not what he said. It's not what he says here. Maybe he got more middle

names installed to make himself seem more Jewish to the man behind the desk. Yeah that's a good way of fan-winking it. Or that it could be Troy McClure is the one that says it. Not crusty so be Troy McClure is the one that says it, not crusty. So maybe Troy McClure got it wrong when introducing him. This is where Lisa asks him like, why can't he remember? Basically is in a constant blackout at all times from all of his many vendors we've seen on screen. From all the flowers he's been smelling.

He calls Lisa a sweet little shiksa which that's a phrase I only know thanks to Seinfeld. The Seinfeld sitcom also taught me many Jewish phrases and terminology. Was that a whole episode where Wayne was accused of being a shiksa? I'm not a Seinfeld person but I certainly have familiarity with the content of a shiksa. Okay. Should we define this for listeners? Oh, sorry. I mean, I don't know, I'm asking. It's just a Gentile woman.

Okay, I thought so, I thought so. Yeah. We head back over to Rabbi Christofsky as they meet up at a area based on Washington Square Park in New York City, which do you think it's a good, I mean, Lewis, do you know that area, any of you've lived in New York for a while?

Yeah. I mean, I think it's an accurate enough reflection of that. And this is where we get the return of Jackie Mason. Krusty, your dad's a rabbi. How could you not have had a bar mitzvah? Who knows? I've lived so hard, there's big gaps in my memory. I remember learning to ride a bike, then pretty much nothing till right now. Why don't we ask your dad? Yeah, right! My father will put this in a spiritual philosophical context. I'll tell you why you didn't have a bar mitzvah. It's because you're a putz.

Everything is a joke to you. I was afraid you'd make a mockery out of the whole ceremony. Like you're making a mockery out of me right now. Maybe I am, but you can't argue with the laughs! Ah, so what? It's not my job to make kids laugh. Yes it is. You're a clown. Oh, without a bar mitzvah, I'm nothing. Krusty, you can still have your bar mitzvah as an adult. That'd be great. Are you sure that's kosher?

There's nothing in the Talmud that forbids it. How do you know all this stuff? I have a Jewish imaginary friend. Her name is Rachel Cohen and she just got into Brandeis. Wonderful. They brought out the keyboard that has the Jackie Mason sound effect on it. Now, joke police is flagging this joke down. It would have been funny if after Krusty said,

it's not my job to make children laugh, that no one said anything. That's just funny in and of itself. I hate the fact that Bart's like, yes, it is. You're a clown I hate they have to underline the joke It was a good joke to begin with his job being to make children laugh is self-evident They should have more confidence in it Can you guys hear the room tone in whenever Rabbi Christofsky speaks of whatever Las Vegas dressing room? They recorded jackie. He said it was in Las Vegas. I'm not just making up They say they went to Las Vegas to record with them. Yeah, you could definitely tell it sounds like room they recorded Jackie Deason in. It was in Las Vegas, I'm not just making up. They say they went to Las Vegas to record with them.

Yeah, you can definitely tell. It sounds like when they recorded with Jerry Lewis in Vegas actually, just a big empty probably hotel suite. But this clip made me realize just how little he's in this because the clip begins with him saying, you're a putz and then Bart and Lisa take over and then it ends with wonderful. So he just is kind of bridging the scene here or sorry, bookending the scene rather. Do we know, so he was like early in the process and was it just cobbled together from various things they had him say?

My guess would be that they recorded one version of it and then when they did all the rewrites, they couldn't get him again for any re-recording. So they just kind of wrote around that. Yeah. I guess we should be grateful that it's like a Frankenstein, Rabbi Kratowski and not an AI recreation of Jackie Mason which is what we would, you know, do now.

They mentioned that they liked having it back though. Also, do you notice I had forgotten on this commentary at the very end they kind of reveal that they tried to get Jackie Mason to call in and he didn't call in for it. Oh yeah, he was supposed to be on the commentary, right? Yeah, because Carolyn Omine shows up late. I don't know if she was late, but she appears mid-commentary for it. And at the very end, when seemingly she thinks it's not being recorded, she's asking Al Jean, like, oh, did Jackie Mason not call in?

He's like, no, we couldn't get him. It's so funny to hear that on the commentary. To reflect what we talked about earlier, it sounds like this episode originally had him involved a lot and then it was rewritten and we're just hearing the remnants of whatever performance he laid down for this original idea. Although I think given how he sounds, it's probably for the best that he was not more heavily featured in the episode. It would be more jarring to hear that disembodied voice where he you know around the lot This is him 18 years before he passes away like that's how long he lives and like we said earlier

He is on many more Simpsons after this once they get his phone number again They're ready to bring back rabbi Christofsky a lot even when we'll get to it someday But even after they kill him off, which is their way of like, okay, that's the end of him, he comes back many times after they kill off his character. And we should mention he won an Emmy for that episode too, correct? Yeah, the first one, yes, yeah. Yeah.

Also, I will say it's a bummer to go to his Wikipedia page and click on the controversy section. There's some racist stuff in there that I did not know. Controversy didn't give it his all when recording Simpsons episodes. Yes, that's right. I'll add that one. Here that the reason he didn't do it is because he's always making things a joke which that does fit though I always figured it was because as we saw in the previous episode with this story Krusty runs away from home after he is seen to be a clown and he's told I have no son. I assumed he ran away from home then and he was 12.

It was before he would have been bar mitzvah. That was my assumption. Which isn't not accurate with what, and again, his many blackouts. Give them a lot of cover for any discontinuity. I guess we don't know when he left. He ran away from home or whatever. So it's plausible deniability I guess. I also like that Nancy Cruz and her team when Krusty's making silly faces behind him they're

kind of breaking character model a little which is good. I'd like to see that kind of creativity in these more you know locked in character model era on Simpsons. Also him saying Kosher are very funny and I did not realize that this imaginary friend Rachel Cohen has more appearances after this I did not realize this. Oh, I didn't know this either. Is she named after Joel Cohen's daughter? Yes, who must be like 25 now I would bet at least did she go to Brandeis? Yeah, I could not find that out Unfortunately, his daughter doesn't seem to have yet gotten into the entertainment industry Unfortunately, his daughter doesn't seem to have yet gotten into the entertainment industry like so many future Simpsons writers and their children did. Not the case with Rachel Cohen, as far as I can see.

But yes, Joel Cohen did it as a reference to his own daughter, Lisa going insane and making up a Jewish friend who has an amazing life. And this would culminate in Treehouse of Horror 27, where Lisa's imaginary friend, Rachel Cohen is killing all of her real friends out of jealousy. That's a plot line. Sarah Silverman? That is correct, voiced by Sarah Silverman.

Her second appearance on the show, I think. Brandeis University, never heard of that before. It's a more Ivy League jokery in here, in this era. It's based out of Waltham, Massachusetts. But yeah, we get to hear the wonderful that will be reused later. This has to be the original need of the use for wonderful. They then double later, right? Yeah, and they even joke about that on the commentary. It just kind of just sounds like he's not there.

This then leads to Krusty coming out as Jewish on his show which he already had his rabbi father on the show with him before I feel like people could have assumed though then again in season four when they're trying to make traditional Jewish food to be served on his program he says Ixnay on the Uje and he also has a Christmas special. So he has run from his Jewish background in previous episodes. He's a complicated man. But underneath all this plastic surgery,

I'm actually a Jew, this is crusty. Which I like that Nelson approves of it with what's not to like. That's funny. Then we get an introduction. I love that quote that he says he's teaching it through animation, which obviously you wouldn't have done that for centuries, but there's a rich tradition of Jewish animators, both in the U.S. and abroad. The Fleischer Brothers from The Golden Age of Animation

comes to mind all the way up to the creator of Steven Universe, Rebecca Sugar, who we've had on our show multiple times. Though in this case, we learn what a bris involves a scalpel that could maim the face of a cat man which is what we see here. At any moment a bris can become a wedding. Yeah I mean I think I'm not looking to ishy and scratchy cartoons for any sort of like accuracy. This is just a bunch of Jewish things kind of shoved together but I think worth it for the joke so you know I'm with it. Him saying Mausel Toff got me a chuckle too. Well, actually, I laughed the hardest in this at Krusty saying, and that's what I believe in. Yes. So we cut backstage. Krusty is getting a

massage afterwards, seeing him shirtless, count, the pacemaker scar, the cattle skull birthmark, and the superfluous nipple. All there, accurate. Being massaged by Mr. Teeny. And in walks his producer that we've never seen before or since, a newly created producer. He couldn't be Mrs. Money Penny, sadly, or Penny Candy. Fuck, what do I say Money Penny? I'm saying the thing he references. And this guy is based on somebody who we talked a shitload about in our Crusty gets cancelled podcast Oh, who was he based on Fred de Corvina the Johnny Carson producer? Okay. Yes. Yes I forgot that they brought his name on the podcast. It sounded familiar, but I didn't know where I heard it before Yeah, Mark Malkoff gave us all the rundown on him who also Fred de Corvina appeared as himself in the

Alf hosts the tonight show episode of alf that al gene and mike reese wrote on Wow, yes That's who's coming in to tell him he needs to work. He's either got to record two episodes on friday Or get a replacement which hey, you know you know, crusty, we're recording two episodes today. How hard can it be? And this bit here though, not just bringing back to Johnny Carson with this producer, but also this bit of wanting a guest host who will be bad and not be able to replace you. That feels very specific to like Johnny Carson or other Tonight Show or

talk show hosts. Wouldn't Johnny Carson like not let certain people host because of competition or some sort of like rivalry? Well he definitely held it against Joan Rivers' regular guest host when she went to Fox. I forgot this is a bit of Carson now with the guest host. In general getting older and being like, I want to do one less show a week. So, bringing the guest host. The act out of him snorting Coke is another surprise

to see in this episode. I didn't not think Krusty does cocaine or expensive flowers, but to make it that specific was a new low for Krusty. Yeah, it's the fact that it's such an explicit reference that is surprising. Then when we hear pitches for guest hosts, let's remember again, this is 2003. Krusty, that was a great show! Once I was clapping and the applause sign wasn't even on! Hey, that's great, but I got a problem.

This schedule has me working on Saturdays. That's the Sabbath. Well, we could tape two shows on Friday. Are you nuts? I can barely get through one show on Friday. Even with the... You know, smelling flowers. Such expensive flowers, filled with remorse.

Anyway, we gotta book a guest host. How about Jon Stewart? He's a son, a lover, and a pundit rolled into one sexy package. He'd be perfect, so forget it. I need a guest host so bad, he can never replace me. I need someone who's not intelligent, not good looking, and so utterly repellent he- I'm your man.

Man, are you unpleasant? You're in. So all of a sudden this becomes a Homer gets a job episode out of nowhere. It takes up a lot of real estate in this Krusty focused episode. I've confused us to why Jon Stewart would have been a perfect replacement for Krusty in any real context. Although I guess the show that Homer ends up with, is not resemble Krusty's original show. We already did homie the clown. So we can't have Homer stepping in as a clown,

but Henry, you call this a politically incorrect parody. I think it's what they're going for. They really miss the mark because they don't get the vibe of the show. I really feel like the references Homer is kicked off for being too political, but it takes a long time to get there. I don't think they're familiar enough with the show to fully make fun of it. Picture this. A snowy morning, and you're staring at where your driveway used to be. make fun of it. Grab four LE all-wheel drive from $98 weekly for 40 months at 5.99% with $2,500 down. Visit shoptoyota.ca or your local Ontario Toyota dealer today. The set design is definitely the politically incorrect version of the Bill Maher show, which if you're not a million years old was the show he hosted on Comedy Central and then ABC before he then got on HBO to show his

horrible awful face there instead. Bill Maher I'm referring to there. But what Homer and his pals are actually just doing is a podcast really. Oh yeah. And you know what the thing is in 2003 we were all thinking Bill Maher what a brilliant mind and he's funny too and a looker So nobody wanted to make fun of him for any reason. Now, time has passed, he said a lot of things, we learn more about him. There is Club Random, you can watch that if you want. There's a lot more fodder,

but I think they were too respectful of Bill Maher to make fun of his program in this episode. I saw a clip recently of Hawk Tua suggesting that Bill Maher date her grandmother and him being horrified because he only dates women who are like 40 years younger than he is. And by date you mean higher. You know what, whatever makes him happy, just a truly ghoulish person. I was trying to think of like other panel shows of this era because the parody does feel pretty vague. I mean visually I hear what you're saying but it's not, I'm not really clear on like what they are perioding in terms of what they're talking about. You know, the kicked

off the air thing, I didn't even consider that as like, I think it is a slight reference to, I bet it was inspired by Bill Maher lost politically incorrect because of a thing he said after 9-11 that he believe it was that the hijackers shouldn't't be called cowardly I think was his stance I'm half remembering why he gets pulled off the air wasn't for a good reason of one of the like actual hateful things he says I feel like no no and you know I'm looking up images of the ABC politically incorrect set and it just seems like a kind of a parody of that except for the sake of staging all of the chairs on the Simpsons parody have to be facing towards the camera on the showpsons Parody have to be facing towards the camera.

On the show, politically incorrect, they're all facing inwards. If they wanted to be specific with this joke, then Homer should have had women on his show who he then like, you know, kisses and makes uncomfortable on it. That should have been there. Be overly familiar with women who guessed on it. This is 03 and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is really, really at a high point in popularity. He took over, it has been 25 years now again. He's the first to joke about how old he looks now.

And now it just feels depressing to say like, wow, Jon Stewart's still doing good work now. Well, he took a break for a while and then was like, oh, apparently I'm still needed. And now he's back. Yes. He had to make that great film we all remember, and now he can return to television. God, that's the-

What's it called, Irrepressible? Irredeemable? Irresistible. Irresistible, okay. Because it contains the word resist in it, which is- Oh, I mean, I listened to five podcasts about that movie, I didn't even know that. Yeah. He's better as a pundit, and in the Daily Show format,

as opposed to that the lesser Apple show that my only ever saw clips of. Nobody watched that show. At this point Marge is very attracted to John Stewart is a new one on me. I mean he's a handsome enough guy back then. I'm not saying Marge is wrong. If it's a beauty contest between him and Bill Maher I vote John Stewart every time. No contest. Meanwhile, Homer has the new ability to fit his fist through his ear. That's pretty extreme for old Homer.

I love that drawing, it's insane. Was it supposed to be, I guess, just like a gag he's doing? Like putting his hand behind his head and then putting the fist in the mouth to make it look like it's just like one giant flesh tube coming in one hole and out the other. I think it's just like removing your thumb,

doing the thumb removal trick kind of thing. It's an optical illusion he's doing. Yeah, yeah. I see. I don't think he's reaching in and grabbing his brain and feeling around. I was surprised to learn that it would take another four years before Jon Stewart would actually appear

on The Simpsons in the 2008 political parody episode E. Pluribus Wiggum. Not only does he appear as himself, but they actually got permission from Viacom to use like the Daily Show logo appears in his scene too. So Homer gets the job. I do like that when Sideshow Mel introduces the show that he announces it as a reformatting that the children cheer.

They're on board with this immediately. They were cheering earlier when he's like, I want to talk to you about Judaism. They're like, yay. The only time they're bored is when Homer starts to talk. And this show of Homer hanging out with his three buddies, like I said before, what is this? A podcast? This boring thing though.

Maybe it's because I just watched it for the first time recently, but the stuff of Lisa in the control room talking into Homer's ear does remind me of Jim Brooks' broadcast news, though I'm sure it's been used in many things otherwise, but this is a Brooks production, so maybe there's some intentionality. I'm just throwing it out there. Obviously, Homer's mistake is listening to Lisa. That's his mistake that he'll make later. But Homer starts to complain about things people really care about, including how his butt doesn't fit in seats, which the picture of Homer stuck in his seat and the comic book guy stuck in the tea cup ride from Disney is, it's funny. I chuckle at that.

We were just talking about that on our Doughboyz episode, the seats of shame for overweight guests. The public sideshow they put on to see if you're too large to get on the ride. Oh yeah, I didn't know about that until I keep talking about Universal, I just was there recently and it was the last theme park I went to. I didn't realize that they had, until I saw someone trying it out, that they have a, you can't be any bigger than this to ride this ride seat, you have to like test out in front of everyone walking by you in the line. Yeah, it's so nice, like outside of Secret Life of Pets, if you want to ride that ride, you have to try out in front of all of the people entering,

like can you make this light go green fatty, can ya? But the fried dough chateau, those doors are wide, everyone is rolling in. Well we've both been to a Beauty and the Beast themed Disney cafe in the past. Within the past year I went to Tokyo Disneyland, they had something like that there, and no fried dough unfortunately. I will say Gaston's Tavern in Orlando, they do have a really good creme brulee croissant, but you gotta get there early, apparently it sells out.

They stop making it at a certain point that's a good tip if I decide to go to Florida at any point I will keep that in mind and you can have Lafou's brew foamy apple drink that I liked and also I like honoring the first of many first Disney gay characters right the first openly gay Disney character in a live-action adaptation of a Disney animated musical. And it depends on where you watch it. He might be edited out. Right. The fried dough Chateau is a funny line at least.

And Carl complaining about oldies stations, not playing new different songs. Well, now all those oldies stations, I think just play 80 songs, if they even exist anymore or 90s. Thank you, Louis. We're into the spice girls era when it comes to oldies right now. I was trying to already guess and like, oh, it's just eighties now. Like, I don't know. I'm thinking of how in the 2010s it was 80 songs.

Homer for some reason, these small amount of this is the problem with this side story to me. They have no time for it. Homer the second he starts making random guesses or just like random chat Everybody in town loves it immediately. There's very little time for a montage of growing popularity it's like the he says it you then see the Construction workers nodding along to it and then a pregnant lady likes it so much. She'd rather watch it than her ultrasound I feel like you're missing a little shoe leather there rather watch it than her ultrasound. I feel like you're missing a little shoe leather there.

Yeah, it seems like it shouldn't have become this popular immediately, and if the joke is it's popular for no reason, they should lay more into that. I did like the construction workers cat calling a woman just to let her know about the show is a good joke. And she appreciates it. I agree with you on the timeline being strange though. Everybody in town loves Homer. He's the new star. And this episode weirdly has Nancy Cartwright, who normally plays Bart, playing two adult women. She's playing the sex worker in the first act and the pregnant woman in this act. And they both sound very much like Bart.

There's a reason they don't normally do that with her or Yardley. I'm wondering if at the start of the season, they're like, do we need to give Tress more than five lines in an episode? We'd save a little money on the Tress McNeil budget for her freelance hire. If we don't hire Tress, we can afford Ring of Fire this week. I almost thought like, oh, it must be

because Tress isn't in this episode, but she is in this episode, just less than normal. Cutting from Homer's success, it's then Krusty learning the rules of Judaism from his rabbinical father. Now you can't mix milk and meat. You got that? And on Christmas Day, you must eat Chinese food.

And pork is strictly forbidden. Uh oh. All these rules, I feel like I'm in a strip club. Well, Dad, what do you want to talk about tonight? Hmm. Ah, listen, Homer, I'd like to raise an issue. Why so formal, Lenny? You're my go-to guy! Oh, about that. You know, I've been with the show from the beginning and I was, uh...

I was wondering if I could get a small cost of living raise? Interesting. Please welcome new panelist, Barney Gumbel! Oh, that light's a little bright. You think you can move it? Please welcome our newest panelist, Disco Stu. panelists Bernie Gumbel. Oh, that light's a little bright. You think you can move it? Please welcome our newest panelist, Disco Stew. Disco Stew knows his place. My husband's a power man star.

Maybe now we can get that panning that goes under rugs. I love how the commentary that Nancy Cruz says, hey, that dialogue's all way off from what we animated it to and now Gene Asks the sheep and she goes yeah, we do that sometimes and change it like he doesn't like being reminded of it's a good joke I wonder if Marge was not on Homer's side initially, but here she's being a little selfish, which is always fun I do like whatever this change joke is now Lenny being fired from the show for asking for a raise whatever this change joke is. Now Lenny being fired from the show for asking for a raise, it does feel a little too real based on how they treated Maggie Roswell, who is back on the show by this point, who asked for a raise because she had been there since season one. She wanted a

slight cost of living raise, specifically that, just to cover her expenses for flying in and recording in Los Angeles because they wouldn't record remotely with her. And they fired her and killed Maude Flanders so that was the equivalent of getting Disco Stew. That joke was written in solidarity I assume with her. Now they're friends with her again by season 15. Yeah it was a rocky what three or four years? Yeah yeah I think it was an Al Jean on his list of things to fix once he came on was to patch things up with Maggie Roswell, which he successfully did this stuff about Chinese food. These are the things I only know from Robert's Michael's

Christmas time for the Jews cartoon that appeared on Saturday Night Live back in the day. The Chinese food thing is something that, you know, is probably the one Jewish tradition that I still maintain. Though I've learned that if you want to order Chinese food on Christmas, you have to do it like three hours early because there's so many orders that it will take that long to show up. So I learned my lesson past Christmas. But yeah, when I was growing up, we would go to Chinese food on Christmas. And also, I remember when we did Chinese place, that was like expressly kosher because there were like Orthodox Jews who would go eat there. So they had to have a kosher kitchen. That's interesting. Now it feels like everybody on Christmas Day does stuff. So it doesn't

feel like in their Christmas time for the Jews thing, it's about how, oh, every Christian person is home. We have the run of New York City. More things are just open now. We covered the Beavis and Butt-head Christmas special from 1995. And a joke is they go out on Christmas Eve looking for things to do and everything is closed. And now we live in a completely different world where everyone is forced to work. Or maybe like things are open half a day on Christmas, but Christmas Eve looking for things to do and everything is closed and now we live in a completely different world where everyone is forced to work. Or maybe like things are open half a day on Christmas, but Christmas Eve is just a full work day for most people.

Well, I heard that we're putting the Christ back in Christmas, so you can look forward to more things being closed. I remember wandering around on vacation with my parents on Christmas, a restaurant to eat at and the only one open was the Hard Rock Cafe, which is never a good choice. No, we're going to honor Christ by making Christmas a full work day, 12 hours. We then go back to Krusty. He's practicing some more and this is where he gets some bad news thanks to Homer's success. Very good.

You just turned yourself a Dr. Bronze. Krusty, you know Diane Stuhl and Jeremy from the network? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Krusty, we've got some bad news. We think you're super talented. Oh, God! You're canceling me! Krusty, Krusty, TV is a fickle business. You've had a good run, but Homer Simpson's a fresh face and- You're not doing this fast enough! You're fired too! I'm- No! Oh-ho-ho-ho! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- the Soul Patch, but he was one of the two executives that were blown up and then reformed as Terminators in Day of the Jack and Apes. That's right! When they're like,

have you thought about Dave Chappelle? Yeah, God, you only need so many evil executives. They are very sick of TV executives at this point, understandably so. I mean, that joke about ABC and not wanting to watch it, that is very specifically about Al Jean's experience having a TV show or TV shows on ABC. Do you think Dan Caslenet is doing a good job there reading the Hebrew there? Oh yeah, yeah. No, I mean that part sounds accurate enough. Normally if you're reading Torah for your Bar Mitzvah you'd be chanting it, but they might not have wanted to go that far with it. I went to a Bar Mitzvah where the Bar Mitzvah just read it, but generally you're chanting

it and there's like a specific way to chant it. And we've got a reference to Dr. Brown's, which I did not know this kosher soda. I did not know it's a long history as I apparently that many major sodas like Coca-Cola makes their soda kosher as well. But back say in the seventies or much earlier, you had to count on Dr. Browns if you wanted a kosher soda. I did not know the history.

I think of it as a very New York deli type soda. I didn't know it was a kosher soda. I only know what kosher means in regard to meat. I don't know how a soda can be non-kosher. I would imagine it's in terms of how it's made. I mean, it could be some random ingredient, like there's horse hoof somewhere in there. But also, you know, anything that's produced in a kitchen that's not kosher is not kosher. So if you're strictly kosher, the kitchen has to be

blessed by a rabbi. And you'd have to keep things very separate in terms of like, you know, different plates and utensils and everything for like milk products and meat products. And there's all sorts of rules to a kosher kitchen. So a kosher like soda processing plant, I guess is the thing as well. And now the blood in every Coca-Cola kosher. We're safe. Yes. Thank God.

And for about the seventh time, crusty gets canceled on the show. It's happened many times before. Meanwhile, Homer is getting so popular. It's happened many times before. Meanwhile, Homer is getting so popular, he's getting asked for autographs by Ralph, which it's silly coming from Wiggum's, but I do like, I hate to bother you while you're eating, but you're always eating.

Wiggum is larger than Homer. Wiggum's like two Homers. Maybe he just eats bigger quantities fewer times of the day, maybe. He only eats sitting in the patrol car, perhaps. And Ralph and Homer, same level of intelligence. Homer's handwriting the same as Ralph Wiggum's as well. This is where Lisa tells him it's time to get the show political and make political action, which Homer first thinks he means

going back in time to save Lincoln. And then it's really just to set up, take that Lisa's beliefs, which I'll play that jingle later. I like that Homer just says for very weak plotting, but funny long, this show has been on too long reasons. Well, I took Bart's advice last week, so I guess it's Lisa's turn.

There are two separate flashbacks to saving Lincoln, right? I mean, it seems like that might've been a bit a time filler as well, because it's a pretty extended sequence. Harvard educated writers especially love Lincoln jokes. Though then, it's funny, we just covered Rosebud, and in Rosebud they cut a Lee Harvey Oswald killing the president joke,

and here they get it in there. So it shows you how times, 10 years later, they're like, you know what, we can have a JFK assassination joke in the show. There was something with I think it was he's in one of family guy the joke about the Kennedy Pez dispenser that was like very controversial. Oh God. Where someone shoots the JFK Pez dispenser and then the kids like at least I have I don't

remember who it was. It was Bobby Kennedy's Pez dispenser. I thought it was the Kennedy one the JFK one and then it was like I still have my Bobby Kennedy Pez dispenser. That's it. Yeah. Yeah, and that was cut from airings I think it was on the DVDs and stuff, but they cut that again seems so quaint at this point But Lewis is right. This is eating up a lot of time crusty still needs to have two bar mitzvahs meet mr. T

Mr. T says double the lines that Jackie Mason does This is when Homer decides he's gonna let Lisa take over the show only because it's her turn because there's no other reason that Homer would let Lisa have political messages on the show. Though also it's not even established, Lisa is just in the control room in that previous scene. There is no other reference to why the family gets to take over the show.

Yes, this is very strange. And the message is weird because I feel like in at this time period, more than ever, people are engaged with politics after the election and between two very controversial important elections. We want the John Stewart's of the world to tell us about politics and to get us riled up. So it's weird to even drop his name in and then say, well, Homer's not popular because he got political.

Wasn't this though, this was a weird time because obviously liberals were very angry and motivated to watch The Daily Show. But as we learned in 04, they were outnumbered by people who wanted Bush era to continue. That was until recently the last time a Republican won the popular vote. So it just seems notable. Well, I mean, the shows were popular, but people watching them thought, well, if I watch this show enough, we'll get a Democratic president. It worked. You know, it just took several more years. I'm sure it was Jon Stewart's

doing. I guess that's the difference between back in 2003, the difference between like network and cable. Like cable could be more partisan or openly political, but a regular show, a network show, less so. But I mean, I think it definitely was, there was more controversy. I mean, I forget exactly when the chicks incident with criticizing Bush happened, but this was still like post-911 patriotism era.

So it sort of makes sense that you wouldn't be able to get away with this much, although, you know, obviously Homer's not saying anything to the level of condemning President Bush He's just bringing up weird policy issues obscure policy issues You know not just the stuff with the chicks the the formerly the Dixie chicks But also too they just had on Michael Moore in an episode and this is after you know, the Oscar Michael Moore in an episode and this is after, you know, the Oscar win where he was calling out. I decided in the news section to stop giving listeners the timeline of the Iraq War because I depressed you guys enough. You knew when we invaded, you don't need to know

like yes, Iraq War very bad at this time too in November of 2003. Unfortunately, a very redundant thing to keep including as you go over the next many, many, many years. Though I've written down the history for the next episode in season 15, and there actually is a rock news in it because major news happens. So look forward to that listener. Then after Krusty loses his TV show, he starts pitching to a much worse network. Look, since my own network dumped me, I thought maybe I could do a show on... D'oh... Fox! Oh, I'm sorry, Krusty. People aren't interested in stars anymore. They

want reality. Wait, how about a show where girls think I'm a millionaire, but what they don't know is I'm rife with disease. Okay, okay, how about when I'm moving with a poor family and laugh at them? Ha ha, you see me? Okay, how about you televised my Bar Mitzvah live? Please, you people are known for taking chances on crap. In 2003, it almost seemed dated to say that, oh, Fox is a rinky dink network that operates out of like a single like

Trailer in the desert. This is post-american Idol We're a few years in and yeah, they've really outgrown their reputation in the 90s for being just this rebel upstart network Although I did look it up because I was curious when Joe millionaire aired and it wasn't oh three So that was a very timely reference. He was just on The Simpsons a few episodes ago. That's right. I forgot about that. But I guess Krusty's pitch is Joe not diseased was his reality show pitch. Well, as we always say about the Fox bashing, we welcome it now in an age where they never make fun of Disney.

Like making fun of your network and biting the hand that feeds like is not really what they do now with Disney. They talk about how great Disney things are. But if there was an episode of the Simpsons where they were like, Oh, the acolyte just got canceled or whatever. That would be this, not even this level of meanness, but they wouldn't do it. Though also this is very much like, Oh, reality TV is going to replace us, which Lewis in your long history of writing

about television, like where do you think this feeling is now of scripted versus reality? Because in 20 or 21 years ago, very much the fear was scripted is going to be replaced by reality. Then it was the golden age of TV. Where are we at now? Yeah, I feel like that bubble definitely burst. I don't think that's really a concern anymore. I mean, I think that certainly the too many TV shows in general issue has come to a head and now we're on the other side of that and also post-strike. But I don't know if reality as an existential threat feels like very much of that time and never really panned out because I feel like a lot of people lost interest in it.

And I think that this particular era was so mean-spirited in terms of the shows that it was doing, things like the kinds of shows that Krusty is pitching that were kind of just about manipulating innocent people and filming it. That era was pretty short-lived, all things considered, and if you watch reality now, obviously, they're still housewives, but I watch a lot of reality competitions, which have all become very gentle and all about people being kind and supportive to each other. I think there's much more of an appetite for that now than for the Joe Millionaire type shows or The Swan where, you know, ugly women were given plastics for jewelry makeovers

without being able to see themselves and then had to be in a competition to see who was the prettiest. One of the most evil things to ever air on television. Anyway, I think that bubble burst. It was really part of the culture war too. Reality TV versus scripted TV. It's like, oh, reality TV is for trash people who vote for Bush. I watched scripted television like Arrested Development. Yeah.

It's definitely interesting as a time capsule. When I think back to this era too, it's like, the fear being that reality was getting such insane ratings. But if you also look at the ratings of scripted shows back then, compared to what they are now, it's quite shocking because now no one watches anything. It seems like definitely every cable channel doesn't want scripted anymore. Like period. Like they've canceled every scripted show. If the network has a streamer, it's FX on Hulu now, or it's just snow piercer.

The TV show that's not a TNT anymore. Watch the last season wherever we don't care that seems to be the direction it's all gone in for scripted now I was very confused when I was watching this episode by how Disney Plus has the Simpsons because now it's Hulu also so they have the current season but it's like under a separate Simpsons you probably already noticed but I just discovered it it said the Simpsons one season and I was like, that can't be right. And then I realized it was just the current season and that the other Simpsons has the first 35 seasons. I like that at least the Hulu stuff is all under one expensive

umbrella. But yeah, the marking of like, no, the thing that's currently broadcast, that's the Hulu season that can't be listed with the other season. Stupid of them, evil of them, but I pay for Hulu. I don't have the bundle because I have a year-long subscription to Disney, so I wanted to get the whatever bundle. I would have to cancel that, which I've already paid for, and then redo it and cancel Hulu. I don't know. They're all terrible. We're going to reinvent cable anyway, so this will all be moot in a few years.

I was being the things that change over time. I think the you're known for taking chances on crapline is meant to be like self mocking and just like, you know, they took chances on us. But I feel like at this point, Simpson success is so like complete and foundational to Fox that my first read on it, I definitely do think they're intentionally being self mocking, but my first read on it was like, well, that's a mean thing to say to all the shows that have been canceled lately on Fox. Seems like it's them saying like, oh, you know, like family guy, that kind of crap. You take chances on that. So Homer decides that he's going to start talking about social issues on Lisa's behalf.

And yes, it is about boring budget things, which in debt, it's about national debt and international debt. My personal political view on this is that I like to think Lisa has better politics than it would be wanting to complain about the invasion of Iraq or something like that in 2003. But it's true that the Democrats at the very least misunderstood how much people care about the national debt because that's what Republicans complained about. Well, Republicans complain about it when they're not in power and then when they want to use it to spend more money on whatever evil shit, then it's not an issue. I think Lisa's politics have

been muddled through the years and obviously restricted by what was appropriate to talk about at the time. But I think the worst thing that's happened to Lisa's politics is that people use that meme of her giving a presentation now to say whatever dumb shit they want to say. It's always something like right wing reactionary that she would never say. And I find it very offensive and it's not why I left Twitter. I'm not fully gone, but it's, I'm taking a break and I partly blame that stupid Lisa meme. When we did that episode, Bob had a whole history on it

and how horrible it is when we did the nerd pheromone episode. Bye bye nerdy. Sometimes it'll be something like trad wife, like, you know, women should be in the kitchen. And it's like, I don't think Lisa would say that. Yeah. I think she would not say that, in fact.

At least like, paste Mo in there or something if you're gonna put that message out there. Sure. So as Homer is giving a speech, Abe has turned off to it as are others. I did like, is like, I might as well be in China too, it's far away remote. Then we cut to the competing television show,

which this kind of is also Krusty's comeback special beating Gabbo at the same time too, this cross-cutting deal. Except with one celebrity. Yes. Mr. T is as famous as all the celebrities in Krusty's comeback special combined. I wish Homer's story would have wrapped up before this. I don't like how we're cutting away back to Homer's story and then back to Krusty. I feel like, well, I'm done with Homer.

I don't care about this. I'm here for Krusty, I feel like, well, I'm done with Homer. I don't care about this. I'm here for Krusty to see how this plays out. I do like the emceeing done by Sideshow Mel. I can't schmear you. And then once everybody screams Shalom at him. I like where he puts his yarmulke. I had never really thought about where he would wear a yarmulke,

so it was nice to see it up there. I also like Krusty practicing his scales, but to the CH sound is what I wrote down. Then we get a joke about the Beach Boys experience which, okay there's a crazy thing they say on the commentary right Bob? Yes and this is not reflected in the credits but they wanted to license Kokomo and they found out that it's going to cost a lot of money so just have the Beach Boys perform it for you and this is the Beach Boys but they're not credited on the episode at all as guests, so maybe that involves like a different tier of payment if you're in the credits as a voice actor.

So this is the Beach Boys as the Beach Boys experience doing this Kokomo parody. It is so strange because you would figure online somewhere in the vastness of Simpsons fandom or Beach Boys fandom, somebody would have said, yeah, this is really the Beach Boys. Remember the Beach Boys around Simpsons? No wiki I could found or any interview or any article about the Beach Boys would say they did the Simpsons. On one of the Simpsons wikis, they credit singers Rick Logan, Bob Joyce, and Walt Hara for it. And they're guys who have done a lot of incidental songs in other episodes of Simpsons. Unfortunately, this song isn't on any of the like the Simpsons Testify album.

So we don't have because it's a parody of a song they'd really have to pay for. It's not original. But I really I don't want to say Al Jean's wrong because they're all saying this is the Beach Boys was like, but then why is this not credited as the Beach Boys? I don't get it. The commentary is the one place where it's documented and maybe you're not obligated to credit people performing in the episode. If someone is a vocal version of something, they're not often credited on the show. It's pretty rare, right?

You would just think they'd advertise it as the Beach Boys on the Simpsons. That's what's crazy. If they wanted to do it, I don't know how song parodies work, but I thought it was like, I thought you were allowed to do a song parody without the rights. Is it a certain length or I don't know whatever Rudel does, I thought was just fair use. I think you have to clear it and that's a different process entirely because I think then the network is worried about lawsuits and everything. I do think like to the letter of the law, if you do a parody of a song,

you can just sing it cause it's a parody. But every, especially like a Fox network would say, we don't want to go to the Supreme court over this. So get permission. I don't care if this technically is legal. It's a good song parody. I think it's worth the Supreme court case, but you know, fair enough. A parody of Kokomo is cute with all of these specifics of the Jewish faith And I also thought part of the joke was like oh, it's because the Beach Boys are you know?

There are a bunch of California like Christian guys. They don't seem like a particularly Jewish group though I learned that one of the founding members of the Beach Boys David Marx is Jewish So there you go. Though he is usually stricken from the Beach Boys records or the lost Beach Boy because he had a lot of differences with evil father manager, Murray Wilson. So there's some Beach Boys history for you there. So after all of the warnings of, you know, first two rows may be converted as Homer is boring,

everybody talking about his, the importance of international debt and the IMF and all these things that nobody cares about. This is where we get our other big yes star who's in the credits for this episode. Now let's meet a man who's muscle bound and a man who's bound not to eat muscles Mr. T and Krusty the Clown! T, I haven't seen you since we roasted Chevy Chase. Yeah, we were kinda rough on him. I felt bad for the guy. You pitied the fool? That's one way of putting it. Time for me to get into character.

Let's scroll! By Koo Et Adonai Humberot Foo! Mr. T, not Jewish, born again Christian, but he's here. And apparently his recording time overlapped with Weird Al's recording time. Because Weird Al was a guest around the same time. And that was the first time they'd ever met. Can you believe these two titans of the the 80s these two icons of that decade never crossed paths until I'm guessing 2002 it was incredible to learn was wondering how Big of a deal. Mr. T was at this point to people watching the Simpsons I certainly knew who he was as a kid

But I don't know what his fame level was in oh three at this point He had fully become an irony-based celebrity, someone you like ironically or out of nostalgia. Around this time, I had a ironic Mr. T T-shirt from the website SeanBaby, and it had Mr. T enjoying cereal on the front of the T-shirt. You know, I mean, I wasn't unhappy to see him. We got two Pity the Fool jokes because we also got a Pity the Shul, which is kind of what I meant about the wordplay of the episode being basically the entire

Jewish commentary is like a lot of that kind of thing muscle bound and bound not to eat muscles is that gave me a chuckle They said they he loved doing the show and it wouldn't stay there all day They even said like for the mean joke about him in old man in the key He said that he wished he had been invited to voice himself then to appear, and instead of them just using a parody voice. Yeah, the song about Branson where it has Charo, but not actually Charo, Trespig Beel, I think. She's like, my name is Charo, I play my barakas.

And then he says, remember me, fool? I was B.A. Barakas. And a good gag of him changing his hair piece to a Yamaka. Now, is this sacrilegious, this Mordecai Christian, donning himself in these different elements of Judaism? I don't know. I think that's fine. If you go to temple for a habar mitzvah, you should wear a yarmulke even if you are a Mordecai

Christian. I went to a Catholic wedding, my first ever, a couple years ago, and I was like, I thought you could do it all as like a Jew visiting I thought you could like take communion, but you can't Apparently so I was a little bummed about that if you're in a temple, you know, you can it's not yeah, it's all good You can eat the cracker and drink the wine. Just don't tell anybody what's up. Well, they said you could I mean it's a it's an honor system I learned but I didn't want to like I was like what if I suddenly got is real and I'm struck down That would be unfortunate. I don't want to ruin the wedding

So I I just stayed in my seat the Catholic Church does a lot of stuff on the honor system I mean there are all these different levels It was like if you've had confession you could do this and if not you can like do part of it And if you're not Catholic you can sit there quietly and think about Something I don't know And if you're not Catholic, you can sit there quietly and think about something. I don't know. Climate change, a problem so huge, how could I ever make a difference? I'm Marco Ciarnovede, climate reporter for the Toronto Star.

I meet a lot of smart people doing really inspiring things in this space all the time. Small things that add up to big climate benefits. Small things, big climate wherever you get your favorite podcasts. The Climate Solutions podcast is brought to you by SmartFlow from Enbridge Sustain. Whether it's towing your big toys or hauling gear for the job site, the Toyota Tundra handles it all without breaking a sweat. By the end, you'll be standing there wishing you could high five that truck. That's what we call being Tundra struck. It's time to be impressed. It's time to Toyota Lisa 2025 Tundra four by four crew max SR from

$141 weekly for 28 months at 4.99% with $5,800 sound. Visit shoptoyota.ca for your local Ontario Toyota dealer today. I liked hearing their tales that they got Mr. T to do Mr. T's commandments, like in person. He just started doing his famous rap. Yeah, he had no problem doing the thing he's known for. They mentioned that Gary Coleman had to be really coerced into saying, what you talking about?

Because he really wanted to put that behind him and he was sick of it. Mr. T was game two B Mr. T. And when they talked to him, he explained his headcanon as why Clubber Lang lost in Rocky III. It's because his sick mother was dying and he needed to take a fall to pay for her cancer treatment.

And they were joking, oh, we don't remember that scene in the movie. And he points to his head, it's like, it's the scenes you don't see. Yeah. Yeah. I love those stories again. And I think I'm talking about this many times on here, but it's just so funny to me that like how much you learn

celebrities, especially male celebrities care about losing fictional fights in movies and how much they don't want it to happen. That to me is less weird than the being upset by a dog being neutered thing. Vin Diesel saying the rock can't beat me up or appear in as many scenes as me. Though Mr. T, he's like well then he should have wanted to get Clubber Lang. He should be mad Clubber Lang did not get to appear in any of the

Creed trilogy. I was just looking at Mr. T's last television credit because I was wondering what he's done recently and he's not doing much. I feel like I just saw him in a commercial or not just but like a recent-ish commercial but I can't remember. Yeah I guess his last thing was Dancing with the Stars in 2017. And we also get a then current reference to the Roast of Chevy Chase. Fresh off the headlines, this thing probably aired right before they wrote this episode. Which is famous for, it was perceived as everybody

was too mean to him and it made Chevy Chase very sad and it was rarely re-aired because it was just a bummer and not funny, though you know in Chevy Chase it's sad he had a bad night. In the show's defense, Chevy Chase seems like a total asshole, so. I have never seen The the roast, but I'm sure it was all fair. I mean, he is a universally despised figure who has been, you know, notably cruel to everyone he's worked with. So that seems not surprising that it wouldn't turn out well for him.

He's like, Oh, why didn't all my friends show up except for like three people? Why did no other SNL people show up? It's because they fucking hate you. That's why. We're going to get to it, but I was just thinking that Homer should be overjoyed that his show is canceled because he can finally meet Mr. T. He missed him at the mall that one time, and now he has his chance and he never gets it. No, he meets him in Temple.

They're in the temple. Oh, they're in the temple. Yeah, I guess there's never any. I'm Homer Simpson and I'm Mr. T and they shake hands. I wanted to see like a formal greeting. That was a deleted scene, unfortunately cut for time. My favorite joke I read from that was said to Chevy Chase that night was Mark Maron said to him,

I heard you complaining that it's just a bunch of nobodies who are mocking you on stage tonight. Well, at least I didn't become a nobody. I'm starting as one. It was also the last roast they did with the Friars Club branding, because every one after that would be just the Comedy Central roast, not Comedy Central Presents, the Friars Club roast of person X or Y. And now Netflix has taken over the roast industry. They did one this year everybody

loved. Some football guy, like I can't remember. There's a Tom Brady one, right? Thank you, Louis, for doing Tom Brady. I didn't watch the roast. I find roasts to be uncomfortable at best. I'm with you, Louis. I cannot deal with roasts. I was thinking back to this too, because I read the 2018 New Yorker piece on Chevy Chase, and it's just very sad. It's like them interviewing him and it's just him going like just full of regrets, but also still just being a self-destructive jerk even in the interview, just saying like a racist thing as a joke and then saying, I probably shouldn't have said that. And they're like, yeah, probably not.

But it does seem like his wife and children like him, like, and he has been married to the same woman for decades, which is, you know, not that I'm trying to say like, oh, Jimmy Chase, not so bad, but no, you at least get like a fair portrayal of him in it where it's still him just going like, why did I, oh, I shouldn't have quit SNL in the first season. And then they're asking Lord Michaels about it. Lord Michaels like that was a million years ago and I don't even remember why I was mad at him. Will he be on the 50th?

Will Chevy Chase appear on the 50th in February? We shall see. After all of this stuff about Chevy Chase, we get to Homer's show gets canceled while it is on TV and Homer is then societally canceled for being caught strangling his son on television as well. Why should America consume 90% of the world's resources? Argentina must devalue her currency to pay her debts. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. You can't leave, I'm your ride home.

Dad, you blew it. You listened to Lisa, and then you lost your stranglehold on the audience. I'll audience you. Wah! Ah! Ah! Wah!

Wah! So that's where Bart has all those broken tracheal bones. Tideboat tie my ass. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the world's largest potato pancake! That's a lot of lotca! Three, two, one, and you're cancelled! Strike the set, you have five minutes to get off the lot. Now they cancel things before they even air, not while they're airing. Yeah.

They take the film out of the camera and just dump it into a fire. As Bart pronounced it, it's time to play the jingle. Take that, Lisa's beliefs! You know, it's around this time in the show where they like shining a realistic light on the cartoony gag of Homer strangling Bart, and it's a very dark joke that Homer is actually breaking bones in his neck. Yeah, that is uncomfortable to think about. I feel like it's Hibbert's Hippocratic Oath that he needs to call the police now, after

this, I think. So yes, the show gets canceled, Homer has to walk away. He sees his parking space is taken by the audio department. Again, it's like there's been no time for this episode. You can't feel bad for Homer and the way Marge comforts him. You're just like, I've had no time. There's no time for this. Marge's like, well, I'm still proud of you. Like, why?

He stood up for his beliefs. He just said what Lisa told him to say. Yes. Yeah. Although the gag that it ends with I like where they go to the all you can eat Sunday bar or make your own Sunday bar and Homer is too much of a baby to even make his own Sunday. It's comforting how Marge is like, of course, like she knows that this is just part of their relationship. She's gonna make it. She knows. They also went striking the set. They threw out his car as well. So after that we cut back to the event and we get

a little reference to the Lion King on stage which I've not I've still not seen that on stage it's been around for a long time I've never seen a production of the Lion King. Have you seen it Lewis you're a big Broadway viewer. Yes I saw it when I was a kid and then I saw it on Broadway it was like when it reopened after Covid I went to see it and I l saw it on Broadway. It was like, I went it reopened after COVID. I went to see it and I lasted through the first act, but it was a rough audience. It was like people filming it and talking because it's a very touristy show. It was just like, I couldn't take it. So I left the intermission. I really wanted to see Circle of Life with all the animals come marching down the aisles. It is playing in Vancouver next year and I

think I'm going to see it. A lot of Vancouver next year, and I think I'm gonna see it. Lot of Vancouver promo. Yeah, yeah. I just saw Book of Mormon at the Queen Elizabeth Theater, it was great. Now I can't remember, there was one recently, there was like a new little shop of horror revival on Broadway that had like some star in it

that I was like so jealous of. I feel like I saw- Jake Gyllenhaal? Was it Jake Gyllenhaal? There was a city center, the like week long productions that he was in a few years back, and then there's the off-Broadway production that's still running that does like a stunt casting thing.

So it probably was one of those. It's been around for the last few years. Yeah, I think I've heard of one of those stunt casting things. It would have been... I just heard Joel Kim Booster talking about how he pitched doing one as well. He couldn't get going, which would have been really good to see. I don't know how good of a singer he is. I haven't heard Joel Kim Booster sing, but hey, he's funny and he's got abs for days, so he must be able to sing. I'm sure he can make it work.

Yeah. Those abs are from all the laughing he's doing when he's rehearsing his very funny jokes. We get a quick bit of Mr. T lore here in our second to last clip. Thank you, cast of The Lion King. And now for our grand finale, the superstar of David, here in our second to last clip. I wish I had invested my money better. They kind of botched the joke because they say this on the commentary, Krusty introduces him as the superstar of David, and then it's revealed he's strapped to a menorah that spins

around. He was originally strapped to a star of David that spun around. Which would make more sense as just a shape. It would spin better than a menorah, wouldn't it? Or as in be more visually interesting. They had know, a menorah, wouldn't it? Like, or is it, you know, is it the more visually interesting? They had a lot of menorahs in this episode. It's a visual signifier of Judaism, certainly, but in terms of them being lit for Hanukkah is kind of a holiday specific thing. I guess I think the Star of David was flagged as offensive to use it in that context, which

is why they went to the menorah. Burning a Star of David David maybe that seems strange. Perhaps. Yeah. Though meanwhile, if you're going to have fireworks go off, it going out of the candles of the Menorah, I can see that making sense. I pity the shool. And also, yeah, apparently Mr. T was not insulted by that joke and agreed.

He wished he had invested his money better for the 80s. But this is where Krusty feels a little disappointed. He feels like he's entertaining all these people. Everybody's loving it, except for his father, who sees it again. He's turning it into a joke, and he just shakes his head here. And then the episode ends in about 20 seconds, right?

It's so quick, yes. My final clip is 36 seconds. I do think it is because, partially they don't have Jackie Mason there to say new lines interacting here. Here's the abrupt ending of the episode as we get a more traditional bar mitzvah. Krusty, the ratings were good. Raymond rerun good. Great. But there's one thing that's still nagging at me. I want a real bar mitzvah in a temple.

Wonderful. I want a real bar mitzvah in the temple. Wonderful. I'm a shelvekhol asherol. Simnai yadka takal yerachy. I'm hungry. Are they married yet? They're not getting married. Then whose garden is this? I was trying to hit the dentist.

And now, finally, I am a man. I pity the fool who didn't bring an envelope to this bar mitzvah. The end. I forgot there was a third pity the fool that they got in there. Yeah, that's weak. They had like two very clever pity the fool jokes.

And this is just flat out less sincere. I pity the fool who doesn't blank. It's like they had a slightly heartfelt ending and they're like, no, no, no, let's get Mr. T one more time in here. I'd say statistically that 60% of the lines Mr. T says are in support of I pity the fool. We needed at least one more wonderful at the end when he's fully given his Bar Metsa. Wonderful. We should have that on our soundboard, Henry.

Okay, anytime we really like something, I'm going to play that wonderful again. I'll make it now after we do this. It's like Jackie Mason's in the room. The passing of envelopes of cash is a typical thing at a bar mitzvah or a bad mitzvah, I believe. Yes, it is traditionally in multiples of 18. There was actually, yeah, you know, talking about other fictional bar mitzvahs. In the Agatha All Along TV show, there's a plot important bar mitzvah as well in that.

That is true. Even though the actor does not look 13, we just go along with it and that's fine. No, if they just put a little more rosy makeup on his cheeks, he looks younger. Man, that is a good show. Good show. Honestly, was it just because Patti LuPone had a major part in it? Maybe. Maybe that's why I feel that way. Also, if you guys like these stories of fictional characters having adult bar mitzvahs,

The Thing comic book starring Benjamin Grimm, there's a great story of that from, it's the collection called Idol of Millions written by Dan Slott, art by Kieran Dwyer, where The Thing, Benjamin Grimm gets his bar mitzvah as well. And I will just plug again, this season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in which Meredith Marks is having a pot mitzvah.

It's a great season, you know, and another adult adult pot mitzvah storyline for you to enjoy. And my last comment on a joke in this episode is that I like that Selma went there trying to marry a nice dentist. She was shooting for the stars there. It's the only laugh I got out of this final scene. I was so confused when it ended. I almost like that I black out at some point

because now it's over. Much like Krusty blacking out. Yeah, exactly. No, right? I feel like they have the music just smash you in the face like, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. They're like, yeah, it's over. This is a messy first episode for the season

that it starts with a dog that also vanishes as soon as Krusty meets his dad. That dog's dead to him. You'll never see him again. But all of that is just an on-ramp to both give Homer his own talk show very briefly and Krusty, they could have just given more time to just Krusty trying to balance his newfound religion with wanting to be a total sellout who makes everything about buddy making and entertainment but they had to have a

brief story of Homer gets famous of having his own TV show which is underserved too. Yeah I think what helps this episode is that a great episode of Arrested Development came after it. It's episode 5, Visiting Hours. The description is, needing information from George Senior Secretary Kitty, Michael attempts to use her crush on Job to get it. Meanwhile, Tobias and Lindsay attend couples therapy, and George Michael attempts to conquer his fear of visiting George Senior in prison.

Oh, that's a great one. Isn't Bob Odenkirk on that one? I don't remember. I think that's in episode three, actually. Oh, he's the marriage counselor in one of them, so you mentioned the marriage counselor. Oh no, he is in that one as dr. Phil Gunty a very dr. Mr. Show named Mr. Show never got a doctorate. I'm sorry But yes, this episode is a mess but there's some funny stuff in it

I just feel like the Homer thing is so boring and I want more of crusty and I really want to know where the Jackie Mason stuff went. What was it? Why wasn't it funny? Why didn't it work? They're not disclosing that on the commentary. It feels unfinished and I want to know if he got a star on Jewish Walk of Fame. Hey, yeah, he totally forgot about that. That was the inciting incident for him to have a bar mitzvah. Oh, thank you. I completely forgot about that. So actually this is worse writing than we thought in the first place.

What would Jackie Mason think or sorry, Rabbi Krustofsky think of that star? Wonderful. What would Jackie Mason think or sorry Rabbi Krustofsky think of that star? Wonderful. Lewis, any final thoughts? No, I mean, I think because I like I said, I so rarely revisit this era, I was like there were parts of this that I was pleasantly surprised by in that I was like moderately entertained. But as an episode, it's clearly a mess. And finding out the backstory of what was cut, not knowing what was cut, but that a lot was cut, it sort of explains why it feels that way.

And for an episode that may or may not have had the Beach Boys on it, or at least uncredited Beach Boys. I'm choosing to believe they were there, that's all real. What a strange time to have uncredited Beach Boys on the show, the Bar Mitzvah episode. Thank you once again to Lewis Peisman

for being on the show. Lewis, where can we find you online? Is there anything you wanna plug? I have nothing of value to plug at this point in my life, but I Do you have social media? You can follow me at Lewis Pitesman. I'm taking a break from Twitter, but I am there By the time this airs, I probably will be back in earnest and I'm also on blue sky letter box Instagram that's about it. You've gotten back at it again on Blue Sky. I wonder, I don't know, this feels, well, hey, this could be dated a month from now,

but it feels like Blue Sky actually is becoming a thing a little bit, I don't know. We're gonna will it into being a thing. You're working on a lot of new things right now. I'm looking forward to seeing your new stuff. Thank you, I hope that's something relevant to announce at some point. Ooh boy, well, thank you again.

And yes, next time, not a rabbi, a Jewish crusty episode. Always having you back. Thank you for having me. Thank you once again to Lewis Pitesman for being on the show. Please check him out online. But as for us, you want to check out more of what we're doing and get all these episodes ad free and one week ahead of time, head on over to patreon.com slash talking Simpsons and sign up at the $5 level when you do get what I mentioned earlier, but you

also get nearly 200 bonus episodes. They're all full length covering things like Futurama, King of the Hill, Batman, the animated series Mission Hill and the critic. And the second you sign up for $5 a month, you'll get the entire back catalog. That's over seven years worth of bonus episodes. If you like hearing us talk about the Simpsons, you'll love hearing us talk about other animated sitcoms so check it out at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and there is a $10 level as well and when you sign up for that $10 level you get the $5 stuff of course but then

you also get on top of that one very very long podcast once a month only for patrons of that level. What's going on there Henry? Bob's talking about our What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, our premium podcast. It's also ad free and you get to hear five or even six hours of chat about an animated feature film that's in depth as we cover an episode of Simpsons. If you liked all this talk about the Jewish religion mixing in with animated comedies, then I think you'll enjoy our chat about 8 Crazy Nights that we just did, which is not as bad as we remembered, though bad in some

ways though too. But we have a whole history on the Hanukkah song in there as well, talking to Lou Morton, one of the writers of that original song. We talk all about 8 Crazy Nights and that's just the most recent one in our six full years of what a cartoon movie at The end of this month, we're gonna be covering frozen And if you're in the holiday mood, we have so many other holiday ones We covered in there before eight crazy nights like we did Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer the original stop-motion one We've done the Muppet Christmas Carol and so many other cool ones You need to check out, including

our longest one ever, six and a half hours about who framed Roger Rabbit, please check it out at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And as for me, I've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackie. Check me out online on Twitter as Bob Servo. I'm also finally posting on Blue Sky as Bob Servo. The wait is over. And I have another podcast, by the way, it is called RetroNauts. That's a classic gaming podcast about old video games. You can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash retronauts and sign up there for two full length bonus episodes every month.

And Henry, what about you? You can find me on Blue Sky and Twitter as H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. I'm also talking Henry on Instagram. We're always posting up a storm on those places. And of course, if you're following me and Bob in Instagram, blue sky or Twitter, you should also be following the official account at talk. Simpson's pod at talk. Simpson's pod will keep you up to date when new podcasts come out, when there's new stuff on Patreon, when we have a live show, when we appear on other people's podcasts like guys or the doughboys, you will stay in the loop if you follow at talk Simpsons

pod in all of those places. And of course, an easy list of all of our previously released free episodes of talking Simpsons and what a cartoon can be found at talking Simpsons.com, including a list of all of the holiday podcasts we have done. If you're in the mood to check those out there at talking Simpsons.com, including a list of all of the holiday podcasts we have done. If you're in the mood to check those out there at talking Simpsons.com. Thank you so much for listening folks. We'll see you again next time for season 15s, tis the 15th season. And we will see you then. Don't worry, I know just what to do.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! towing your big toys or hauling gear for the job site, the Toyota Tundra handles it all without breaking a sweat. By the end, you'll be standing there wishing you could high-five that truck. That's what we call being Tundra-struck. It's time to be impressed. It's time to Toyota. Lease a 2020 Tundra 4x4 Croomax SR from $141 weekly for 28 months at 4.99% with $5,800 down. Visit shoptoyota.ca for your local Ontario Toyota dealer today.