Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror XIV With Will Sloan

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Season 15 begins with a big Halloween special, and we're joined by Will Sloan, Jerry Lewis expert and cohost of podcasts The Important Cinema Club and Michael And Us! After we chat about how this debuted in November, we chat through one segment that unintentionally copies Family Guy, a story of Frink/Hank Azaria meeting their comedy patriarch, and another Twilight Zone parody. You'll also learn a lot about Oscar De La Hoya and comic books in this week's podcast! Support this podcast, hear it ad-free, and get 180+ bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

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I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we satisfy your Hebraic desires. I'm one of your hosts, the busboy in the restaurant of life, Bob Mackey, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who is here with me today, as always? Henry Gilbert, who finally kicked his addiction to gummy worms. And who is our special guest on the line? It's Will Sloan, and I finally found a dead guy's clothes that

fit me. And this week's episode is Treehouse of Horror 14. I'm still cold. Will everyone please stop fighting and burning? Never! This episode originally aired on November 2nd, 2003, and as always, Henry will let us know what happened on this mythical day in real world history.

Oh my god! Welcome to Season 15, Bobby, where Scary Movie 3 tops the box office, Beyonce's Baby Boy with Sean Paul tops the charts, and this episode airs alongside the debuting pilot of arrested development oh a fantastic night for television i was there because of david cross ended up being a good show so absolutely yeah that's how i knew i watched this this night because i had heard about arrested development it was you know a, I probably read about it on TV Guide or Ain't It Cool News about like how this is the best pilot of the season and it's got David Cross in it,

which that's all that mattered to me. I hadn't heard of, well, at the time, Jeffrey Tambor of Larry Sanders' show being on the show also was like, wow, that's awesome too. But then I didn't realize how awesome Jessica Walters or Tony Hale or all the rest of the cast was,

but I had a great night watching that. I think maybe it did hurt this Simpsons for me in my memory because the Arrested Development pilot is a truly great pilot of television. And The Simpsons was just a better than average season 15 Simpsons. I watched Arrested Development the way it was meant to be seen, which was a year after it was canceled, illegally downloaded in my dorm room. So that's my experience. Well, that's how most people saw it. And I think this pilot for Arrested Development aired, you know, after George W. Bush was elected. The characters and the storytelling, it's an allegory for that. And then he's reelected in 2004. And because I had given up on politics,

I think I was just really invested in TV shows getting canceled and the injustice behind that. So I was a big super online guy signing petitions, spreading the word about the show, showing it to all my friends. And then when it came back, I couldn't imagine not wanting more Arrested Development, but I tapped out about halfway through and I have not even explored season five.

I know they've re-edited season four to fix it and everything, but I hear that has its own problems. But I'm kind of just good with the three and don't even make the movie. I'm fine. You made a perfect, I don't know, 50 episodes of television and that's good. Arrested Development season five was awesome

because I also haven't seen a single frame of it. And all I remember is, I mean, the excitement that greeted season four. And then season five came along, you know, after Jeffrey Tambor had been me too. And all I remember about the press rollout was that incredibly grim New York Times interview with all of them where like all the men in the show were being like, well, it's it's such a family atmosphere that we have here on the set. And Jessica Walter just saying over and over again, Jeffrey Tambor treated me horribly and like weeping in the interview as they all try to say,

ah, you know, we have our differences, but it's a family. I just remember that so overshadowing season five. I don't think I know anybody who saw it. I think only one of our previous guests, Drew Mackey, our pal from Gayest Episode Ever, he had watched it. Just a personal need to finish the job.

But yeah, I remember I went to, in San Francisco, Comedy Central was doing a launch event. Or they were doing like a comedy festival in SF that had a lot of cool podcasts at it. And they had lots of things advertised there, including season five of Arrested Development. And I remember it was like that morning the New York Times interview had come out, which had literally the audio clip of Jessica Walters sobbing in it.

And I just remember it's like, I'm walking around and here's like, get a frozen banana, get a photo with the stair car. And I was like, I feel depressed. I just feel awful looking at this for today. But anyway, it was a happy time watching it in November of 2003. That's right.

And hey, Scary Movie 3. I tapped out after one because I never thought they could tap the sheer amount of cum that was on the screen and I don't think they did. But it seems like this is the one where Leslie Nielsen was brought into the orbit of these films.

One of the Zuckers directed it. Was it David or was it Jerry Zucker? Oh, David Zucker. Yeah, it was David. And David, of Oh, David Zucker, yeah. It was David. And David, of course, later went on to make An American Carol, which I'm sure is your favorite movie, right? An American Carol? Hey, if Leslie Nielsen's in it, I'm laughing.

And it stars the best Farley as well. That's right. When I looked at Scary Movie 3, yes, it is the first one made without the Wayans brothers. The Wayans has got chucked out probably out of a general cost-saving move in it it's where it is more in the zucker style than the wayan style and also craig mazen future of chernobyl and last of us show fame who's now mr prestige he fucking wrote scary movie 3 but also here i am making fun of it. That movie made $220 million worldwide. Comedies don't do that anymore. I can speak to that.

I mean, I was in the first month of high school when it came out. I had just entered grade nine, and that movie was all anyone was talking about at my high school. I actually still haven't seen it. I'm sure it's great. David Zucker would never lead me down a dark alley, but I can attest that it was very popular among my age cohort as i recall from the ads i just remember the ads and i pulled up the trailers to re-watch them that they it was the first one where i noticed how quickly they were churning it out because this was released between matrix reloaded and matrix revolutions and they were able to get george carlin

in for a matrix reloaded parody where he plays the architect to the bearded guy who explains everything at the end of Matrix Reloaded. Oh, so just doing his Bill and Ted role, basically. Scary Movie 3 would not ask any comedian to do something new. That wouldn't happen. That's not what you're paying for. And, you know, for as much as we grumble about the whole Simpsons predicted it headline phenomenon, I'm going to point this out. I'm looking at the cast list. Leslie Nielsen plays President Harris.

I'm going to say Scary Movie 3 predicted it. Holy crap. Bob, you got to put that on Twitter. Save it in your drafts for November 6th or 7th, whenever it is. I need to buy a verified account first to get all the pennies that we'll collect. Oh, that's true. I sure retweets alone. And yes, the Beyonce song Baby Boy with sean paul it's a nice song not one of her biggest hits but just to let

you know it was topping the pop charts at the time and of course the florida marlins are the new major league baseball champions this week that is why this episode aired in november which we will get to but that is what happened the week this aired and joining us once again is will sloan from the michael and us podcast will last join us for the season 13 episode the bart wants what it wants welcome back to the show well very happy to be here thank you and we had you for that for the the simpsons go to toronto episode and now another one for your wonderful expertise i'm glad we can count on you for this. I was just listening to you guys on Michael and us have been doing really great. You guys have learned just what we did

about the Simpsons. You've been doing an episode by episode exploration of a show just as important as the Simpsons. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Just as funny too. Yeah, we just wrapped up our final Studio 60 episode today. We've seen every episode. I think we've seen more episodes of that show than Aaron Sorkin has seen. So I'm going to miss it a lot. It's also he's been really helpful being in the news a lot this election year to help raise the prominence. What a moron. I mean, honestly.

I mean, his timing to do an editorial the morning Biden drops out to say it should be Mitt Romney instead of him like hours beforehand is just amazing. And the article was awesome, too, because you couldn't come up with a better parody Aaron Sorkin article. It was that paragraph in it where he was like, does Mitt Romney support abortion rights? Does he support trans rights? Does he support unions? No. But this isn't about those issues. It's about stopping a clinically insane man from taking the White House. I mean, good God. You know, Henry was right the first time. It should have just been a post. It should have been a tweet, not capitalized,

no punctuation, just tossed out. Aaron Sorkin would never, he would never post. He would never go on any platform. He has the New York Times as his Facebook. He has a real testament, though, like give a man a reputation for being an early riser and he can sleep till noon. You know, give a man a reputation for being like a politics whiz and he can print anything in the New York Times. To just go over a two month old thing now. My favorite thing was when he said that even he could admit, like, i've said this in the west wing writers room they'd say you finally jumped the shark aaron but and they would be right yeah he at least had the sense to be like yeah this does sound too stupid even for my dumb show but yeah then the

part i couldn't believe is that he said one of the cast members always said bradley whitford has said oh people say our show is so far-fetched but we're on in the same time as a show where a mafia don gets therapy i don't think we're so could you imagine such a thing a mafia don getting therapy well so i would think though for aaron sorkin it is an impossibility that he would think a narcissist wouldn't learn anything from a therapist. I would think he misses the point on that. Anyway. Yeah, I do want to congratulate Will for being brave enough to talk about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, because even with the death of Matthew Perry, that did not

bring it back into the news cycle or bring any mentions on anyone's tongue of, did you know he was the star of this show too? Nobody dared mention that. And, you know, likewise, I don't think his passing even really influenced, I mean, obviously a terrible you know, likewise, I don't think his passing even really influenced. I mean, obviously, a terrible shame that that happened. I don't think his passing really influenced our coverage of the show at all, which maybe speaks poorly of us. Maybe we're insensitive to human tragedy. He's not bad on the show. I mean, everybody on that show is just like, you know, given these incredibly one note characterizations. And I think he and Sarah Paulson, who's his love interest on the show, do heroic work trying to generate chemistry where there's none on the page. I see a lot of posts on Instagram or Facebook of like, well, remember this scene, Matthew Perry?

We were all Matthew Perry in this scene from Friends, like a bunch of like loving tributes to his work on Friends. Nobody. I mean, I guess I don't see anybody talk about the whole nine yards either, but still. No, no. But that was a whole year of Matthew Perry's life. I mean, Matthew Perry, I love that show Studio 60 because every character, even the ones that Sorkin disagrees with are just mouthpieces for Aaron Sorkin. Every conversation is like dueling Aaron Sorkin editorials being read out loud to each other. And every conversation also feels like Aaron Sorkin sort of saying the thing that he wished he'd said, you know, at the end of an argument five years before. And when you look up the drama, you know, whatever drama is happening

in every episode, if you look it up, there is an analogous incident that happened in Sorkin's life that these episodes are specifically responding to in a complete mirror funhouse version of how they actually happened with the deck completely stacked to Aaron Sorkin's advantage. When you think that the Matthew Perry character is how Sorkin sort of views himself, it makes the show a much richer experience. What have you guys learned from covering things episode by episode now on that kind of extreme focus? Did it let you dig into those kind of personal details? I mean, the thing that comes across, and this will not be that controversial to say, but the thing that comes across most forcefully is Sorkin's misogyny, which has been well documented. But until you've seen every episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, you do not fully comprehend like every interaction between

a man and a woman is like a battle for dominance. Every like smart, capable career woman has to be domed in some way on his show. The way that he divides women into the ones who deserve respect and the ones who are typically blonde and who are typically younger who don't deserve respect like there's a character on the show one of the cast members on the show within a show called genie who is basically just like the what's a nice way i can say this the character who everybody on the show sleeps with you know the way sorkin writes her is just disgraceful. Yeah, until you've actually sat in that mind palace

for 24 straight episodes, you don't understand. I feel like I'm coming back from war. Well, you know, if only it went on for 36 years, like The Simpsons, you could make that your life, like we made The Simpsons our life.

Oh my God. I dream every day of imagining how Matt and Danny and Harriet and Jordan and the whole gang at Studio 60 is responding to. Because the central drama of the show is that Matt, the showrunner of Studio 60, and Harriet, who's the main cast member on the show, they used to date. And she's a Christian and he's an atheist. And they're working through a lot of Bush Bush era culture war stuff in their relationship. And I just dream of like, I wish the show lasted 10 years so we could have found out,

you know, how would they have dealt with Trump? Would she have become like an anti-Trump Republican? What sort of issues would have been worked through in that relationship? If you miss Studio 60, I'm pleased to let you know that I just went on to fanfiction.net and there are over 170 Studio 60 stories on there. Oh, you found my alt. The universe continues, and it's thanks to Will Sloan, so thank you.

Oh, please. And yet, does Aaron Sorkin send me a card? Does he send me flowers? Never. Does he call it Christmas? No. Well, also, Will, you are coming in for an episode of The Simpsons

that is also very steeped in the Bush era, culture war, Iraq war era that you guys on Michael and Us have to live in for so much of your podcasting careers. So the timing of this episode's release also is pretty good for your style. Oh, yeah. No, I definitely felt transported back for sure. I mean, this was 2003. I remember being in grade nine, watching this on the TV, really excited that my guy Jerry Lewis was doing a guest spot. I think I'd basically fallen out of love with watching new Simpsons episodes at this point. I think I kind of stuck around through season 12. And then after that, I faded away.

So it was unusual that I saw this when it aired. Are you sad that we didn't get you back for an episode next month that features your podcast namesake, Michael Moore, as the guest star? I also saw that when it aired because I was very into Michael Moore at that time. And I probably read in, I don't know, TV Guide or something that he was going to be a guest spot. But he only has one line in that episode, I think. And I'm sure it's still the same.

This is an era of The Simpsons that's rife with one line celebrity cameos. Every celebrity. Like Oscar de la Hoya, some Nobel Prize winning guy. Jennifer Garner. I think Jerry probably gets at least five or six lines. He gives a comparatively full body workout on this episode. It's a guest with purpose for sure. Yeah. I mean, i don't like the unnecessary cameos i do like this one for being kind of disturbing i feel like 9-11 made them all chill out a little bit be a little more reserved but now they're back it begins with a family annihilation scene the creepy credits are back they were gone for i believe two whole seasons so they're getting things back on track with the Halloween episodes.

They make it a joke in the start of it too, but this continues the tradition of the Simpsons Halloween special, which happened for a good while, of airing after Halloween. Yeah, that's right. It starts with Kang and Kodos making a joke about it in their obligatory appearance. The Kang and Kodos appearance. I think at this point, when's the last time Kang and Kodos had a real like plot on a Halloween episode? They usually just appear at the beginning or the end as sort of tradition. In chronological order, I feel like the last one they were actually a real part of was the Jerry Springer one from a few years earlier, I think. I can't think of another one in between that one and this episode.

And of course, in a few years, they'll get an entire in-canon episode, which is despicable to me. Which was going to be the plot of the second movie that they didn't end up using. So it'll be fun to talk about when we get to it. I do want to point out that John Swartzwater is out after this production season.

We're still in 14. This is technically debut of broadcast season 15, but this is a season 14 episode. So he's basically being gifted an entire Treehouse of Horror while he's on his way out. And notably, this is the first Treehouse of Horror to have just one writer for all three segments. Previously, one writer or writing team would handle each segment. And this would be the standard format for these episodes until fairly recently so trials of horror 33 is the first one in a very long time to go back to having a writer or writing team for each segment so this is the new standard for let's say 20 years this breaks the tradition of you know in the reason they always did it that way from the

beginning was oh well this spreads it out and they actually had like a different director for each segment in the first couple years but in this one the tv show writing always was let's spread it out like everybody has a fun halloween script to do and i think partially well partially it makes it easier you just have one writer just do it as a regular script but also i do think it makes it cheaper because if you're getting three different wga writing checks for one episode it makes it a more expensive episode interesting but schwarzwelder i don't know if he knew this was the end of his time here but he is having a lot of fun in this episode with like you said bob both extreme violence and also he is such a like Jerry Lewis, I think is a voice that really fits for him, too.

Like, I think he writes well for a classic Jerry Lewis style comedy. I also, by the way, speaking of Jerry Lewis, I was surprised that this was the first and I think only time Jerry Lewis has been on the show since, especially in those first 10 seasons, the specter of Jerry Lewis hangs over the show very heavily. Obviously, the Krusty the Clown character, like he's more based on Jerry Lewis than Professor Frank is. And, you know, because there was a whole boomer writing staff. There are so many references to like, you know, the Jerry Lewis telethon where Dean and Jerry reunite or, you know, to name just one. He's such a reference point that I'm kind of surprised it took this long for him to

actually show up. It is funny you point out we just on Krusty Gets Cancelled, which we did a few episodes back, the season four closer. Again, it's Martin and Lewis reconnecting at the MDA telethon scene. Like they did, even they on the commentary admit, we parodied that reunion like three times on the show in this season. Yeah. I do think that the Jerry Lewis thing was a long time coming,

but oh, another bit though is that I love hearing that Stephen Dean Moore, the director is on the commentary with David Silverman and both are agreeing. Like they're just expressing how painful it is to do a Halloween episode how it's way harder than a regular episode and they joke that the writers must think of ways to write something that is incredibly difficult to draw and then Al Jean responds with an even funnier joke saying actually we never think of you even once when we're writing a script so yes the halloween names are back as we start the episode bart and lisa are dressed as peanuts characters which is

a cute joke i think because mac reigning has definitely said charles schultz was a major influence on him as a cartoonist but this also now is kind of like a mini tradition because i feel like they dressed as the flintstone family in one or two tree houses earlier than this. And they did the Munsters opening parody. Often they do start with the Simpsons dressed as other famous cartoon characters. Sort of sets a climate of like the non-canonical nature of these episodes, doesn't it? The fact that these characters sort of on the Halloween episodes interact more freely with other intellectual property. I also like their giant paper mache heads. Those are really great too.

I like how there's nothing clever about this. It's just a family abusing each other and then murdering each other. Just pure shocking brutality, which I don't know. After the last couple of tree houses, this does feel kind of shocking. After they go through all the crappy candies you don't want at Halloween, which I never got any. Tootsie rolls were low on my list if I got a Tootsie roll, though then there were like, I guess I'd probably take it over candy corn. But fortunately, I don't believe I ever got any circus peanuts, those marshmallow weed type deals. Yeah, I would get raisins and pennies and echo wafers, these low tier candy. Some of them are, you know, currency that you can't even spend in the early 90s. I mean, the worst are the ones who give you like toothbrushes and toothpaste.

I mean, those are the most passive aggressive. Shoot them into the sun. You know, I did get a Chick track at least one year as well. An anti-Halloween Christian comic strip called From Jack Chick, the wonderfully hateful awful human being i believe finally dead now i think they're not getting any chick tracks in there but what they do get is what is mo's library card which you can tell in hd but lisa then steals bart's chocolate bar which my first thought was it was a butterfinger but it just says chocolate on it but it does look like a butterfinger wrap i wrote that she laid a finger on his Butterfinger. I think they couldn't use the logo,

but it was designed to be a Butterfinger. You know what? The Simpsons are back to advertising Butterfingers again recently. That great Twitter account, the Dinosaur Dracula, he recently had a tub for Butterfinger BBs that's shaped like Bart's head that he added to his collection of outdated food. And that led Bill Oakley to be like, yeah, that's the exact model that was in the Simpsons writers room in season four, always full of all the Butterfinger BBs you could eat. But this time it starts a fight. They all start killing each other, but you know what? You could see the line of like, Lisa can't be hit on screen. And Bart barely gets hit.

They mainly just get like their shapes in the carpet being smacked around. Homer, you can see, gets stabbed and shot on screen. He could be stabbed in the heart and shot, I guess, shot off screen. That's true. We've seen him shot on screen before. Bart can be strangled, though. Why can he be strangled but not hit mac reigning has very specific rules on the stranglings and i do feel like the causing permanent injury thing is maybe

the part there i love hearing bart say i caramba when he's getting like bashed in the carpet yeah i guess homer can try to set his children on fire but he can't smack them there's a line and he also lights abe on fire which led to our opening clip there and then we have a quick message from kang and kodos pathetic humans they're showing a halloween episode in november who's still thinking about halloween we've already got our Christmas decorations up. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! So tiny history on this.

Starting with the year 2000 Treehouse of Horror, these episodes would air after Halloween because of baseball, like Henry mentioned earlier. But starting in 2011, the Treehouse of Horror episodes would start airing before Halloween once again. But starting last year, we're back to the post-Halloween Treehouse of Horror. And this one is scheduled for November 3rd. So they're back to screwing us over again with a post-Halloween episode.

Is this because of their new double Halloween practice of how it's like you get the first one, the It parody? Was that on Halloweenlloween or before halloween and then treehouse is after yeah i forget how that shook out but as far as i know the last year's really broke tradition well i'm looking forward to this year's with its venom parody and then also a bunch of ray oh god yeah and it's animated by the robot chicken folks homer has some genes take him over. Yeah. As long as they're not writing it, I'm okay with that.

Venom becomes denim. That's the gag. Oh, God. I do like Kang and Kodos's. I like that they have a specific Christmas decoration of them eating the reindeer. That's cute as well. I'd like that on my mantle. You were mentioning more recent, like newer Treehouse of Horror episodes.

So you've checked in with the show lately. Are Marge and Homer still together? Can you tell me if there have been any huge ruptures in the Simpsons universe in the last five years? You know, they may sound a little different, but they're making it work. Oh, that's good. Yes. The biggest status quo change I feel like in the last few years is, well, I mean, Patty now has a canonical, like regular girlfriend in the last few years as well i mean patty now has a canonical like regular

girlfriend in the show and i guess clancy wiggum's wife sarah wiggum has been reset as a character to just be megamoolali doing her megamoolali thing and now there's a permanent replacement for edna krabappel a teacher played by kerry washington of scandal so oh my goodness but this feels like when i check in on people I knew in high school and find out all the things that have happened to them. Just when I look up somebody on Instagram. The Simpsons will be right back. It's television's most horrifying event.

Don't miss the pure terror of a world without death. Does this mean they'll never cancel the Jim Belushi show? I guess so. All-new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, Sunday, November 2nd on Fox. Next Sunday, the fear will be here. I am dead. We don't want any... The all-new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.

It's the most terrifying chase with death you've ever seen. All-new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror. Part of a full hour. One week from tonight on Fox Laugh Out Loud Sunday. Okay, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to election day. And face it, between debates, polling releases, even court appearances, it can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Milkey. I'm the host in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand with just enough context so you can listen, get it, and go on with your day. So, kickstart your morning. Start smart with Start Here and ABC News, because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. hey everybody it's henry gilbert and let me just stop time real fast here to say thank you very much for listening to this week's podcast about treehouse of horror 14 and a big

thank you to our guests to start off season 15 will sloan from the michael and us podcast it's always awesome to have will on especially because his j because his Jerry Lewis expertise really helped us out on this episode. And you guys should be following Will on Twitter. He's a great tweeter. He also has a great Letterboxd account, too. You should be following and definitely listen to the Mike Linus Podcast. Thanks so much, Will. Also, if you're following this podcast, you should know it is thanks to

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You can also hear all the previous ones. Almost 70 What a Cartoon Movie podcasts are there with a new one each month. Us covering so many Disney classics. A bunch of Warner classics. Every Toy Story movie. A bunch of Batman movies. A ton of Ghibli films. Even our longest podcast ever, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Six and a half hours long of animation history crammed into one podcast. You gotta check it all out for yourself at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. So after that little opening bit of mocking how the show is always delayed and thanks to major league baseball now it's time for the first segment which i don't need to obsess over this because our previous guest the real jims who has the YouTube channel of Simpsons History, did an entire 15-minute deconstruction of this.

But this segment really rips off, I'll believe it that it's unintentional, a March 2000 Family Guy episode called Death is a Bitch. Yeah, I don't think John Schwarzwalder was a Family Guy viewer. I don't know if he pitched this segment, but I guess it was intended to be a horror parody of the santa claus those films if you look at how death is a bitch in this both play out they are so similar i think it was just two comedy writing teams being on the same wavelength in terms of how this idea rolls out i think it's not very fair of simpsons to have their claws out for family guy

especially in this season they call family guy a ripoff of their show and it's like well then you know you guys feel like the finger points back at you then if you're doing something that is very similar to the time peter injures death and becomes the grim reaper for an entire episode and then doesn't want to kill somebody at the end of the episode and defies God's will. The biggest difference is that death is not funny in this instead of being voiced by Norm Macdonald. And there are similar scenes where it's a world without death.

People can jump off of buildings and get shot and not die. Maybe somebody along the way realized, oh, Family Guy did this, but they probably considered the fact, oh, Family Guy did this, but they probably considered the fact, oh, Family Guy's canceled. Nobody cared about Family Guy. Let's just do this idea. People will forget about Family Guy and we're fine. This is funny as it is. I think I would say at this point that this episode, I enjoyed revisiting it. I like these characters. I like this world, but I don't think this is a very, you know, I think this episode is typical of season 15 Simpsons. I didn't think

this Reaper Madness segment was all that funny. It zips by incredibly quickly. There's just like gag, gag, gag. So you're not bored. It's like a shiny object that's in front of you with a lot of stuff happening. But I don't know. I remember the great Treehouse of Horror episodes of Yore where even though they were non-canonical and so insane and absurd things would happen in them they were sort of rooted in the reality of the characters and so they were sort of like thought experiments in a way of you know okay what would it be like if the simpsons family had you know bart's twin brother locked in the attic like how would they behave how would this actually work? And I don't feel

this Reaper madness segment is like grounded in any identifiable or any consistent or coherent reality of Homer's character as he's been, you know, built over the preceding seasons. He sort of like acts however he needs to act at any given moment to make whatever joke he's doing work do you feel the same way at all well you know i do believe him when he says he'll only kill out of anger or to prove a point i do think that's instrumental to his character he just doesn't have the motivation or the energy to murder anyone when he becomes the grim reaper it's very easy and so many people are murdered on screen in this segment and in the second segment there's so much death in this episode it just feels so refreshing it's a bloodbath of a scene but as far as like character goes when i first watched this i was distracted by

its similarity to the family guy episode that i did remember not that i was like mr family guy but also that i also think it's like the weakest of the three in this episode because it's just is i'll say it later but like they also just steal from themselves for another joke in this right down to the music. Speaking of Family Guy, it was very unfortunate for Fox that previous spring or spring of 2003, that's when Family Guy started airing on Adult Swim. So this dead show was being brought back

and people are seeing this death is a bitch thing every two months as Adult Swim goes through the cycle of all the episodes. So it was being pushed to the surface and reminding people this idea had existed before also to put this in family guy history context the week this episode of simpsons aired is when on adult swim they debuted the band family guy episode when you wish upon a weinstein is when that debuted on adult swim which fans may remember that's when Family Guy was deemed

by Fox to have made an episode that goes too far and would be viewed as anti-semitic because basically Peter befriends a Jewish man and his you know ignorance is challenged by this Mr. Weinstein in the show Bart gets approached by death I do like Homer slamming the door in his face saying death we don't want any also Marge saying that she only read the term run like the wind and thought it was wind i chuckled though by this point in 2003 parodying benny hill and using yakety sax i feel like was such like a dead parody like it's done too often they had already done it this season in a star is born again the episode helen fielding is the guest and the episode ends with a Yakety Sax Benny Hill thing. Damn, you're right.

They're ripping themselves off with this thing. Jesus. Yeah, it's a pretty lame idea. It's pretty played out. I am always happy to hear the Benny Hill music, though. And they pay for the real one. They don't ask Alf Clausen to make it fake. Yeah.

Yeah. After a long bit of that, with the door you know, which they don't really top. It's just the door. It just is the Scooby Doo sequence. They don't add too much to it. Then Bart gets cornered. He says, take Milhouse. We all know there's no happy ending there. I'm laughing. You're telling me a joke that's funny. And I laughed. But then Homer saves the day, though not to save Bart, more for revenge for other people. And he defeats death.

Please don't take me. Take Milhouse. We all know there's no happy ending there. Your time is up. This is for Snowball 1 and JFK! Ow! Cool. Dad, do you realize what you've done? You've created a world without death. Does this mean they'll never cancel the Jim Belushi show?

I guess so. No! A world without death. Frankie the Squealer, why won't you die? If I knew, I'd tell you, I swear. I better call my wife. Tell her I'll be late. I knew this would take so long. I'd have put on a TV. Pizza!

Your money's on the counter, no tip. Are you miserable, bastard? That's why I'm up here. Oh, classic Moe. Yeah, I really enjoyed the Moe suicide joke. Oh, yeah, yeah, totally. Some interesting points about Homer's character there. You know, the fact that he's a big JFK guy, apparently, adds an interesting wrinkle to his long and you know complicated and contradictory relationship with politics also odd swipe at jim belushi out of nowhere i do remember that the show according to jim like it's been kind of forgotten by time but i remember back then it sort of occupied the

same place as like i don't know young sheldon or one of those like you know commonly recognized as bad shows that are popular you know it existed in that place and the discourse but also i don't know weird that homer has it in for jim belushi so much like i don't know isn't he the kind of guy who would like jim belushi at that time i don't like jokes about homer having good taste right yeah for him it should be like looking in a mirror looking at the tv watching accordion gym it's like oh it's me and my family right the best homer jokes about his taster that he has bad taste like he would want a good show to be off the air like we just did another great joke about how he loves the in the cape fear episode he loves rex morgan md

like he's got the cure for the daily blues like he likes bad things but instead homer is taking like the snobs approach jim belushi his tv show is the one you're allowed to hate if you work hollywood you can say you think jim belushi's not funny there's a lot of not funny people you can't say aren't funny because it would be damaging to your career but you can say jim belushi suck they could have said The View or something like that that was a punching bag for this kind of comedy at the time I also don't love just the incursion of like a lot of topical references in The Simpsons that we're seeing like especially in this episode earlier on they were dealing more like broad archetypes you know Rainier Wolf castle instead of arnold schwarzenegger for instance but also i feel like when there were references it was like a lot of

sort of boomer specific references it was like jerry lewis and stuff they would make reference to things that were you know 10 years out of date rather than like on this episode later on we'll see jennifer garner introduced as the sexy star of Felicity which just happened to be a show that was on that year right alias you're getting it confused with Keri Russell's Felicity yes alias oh my goodness I'm gonna go commit seppuku now for that mistake well I wonder if they were trying to have their cake and eat it too. I'm just saying there could be a new Jim Belushi show on TV 10 years later, five years later. So they don't want to date it specifically with According to Jim, which unbelievably ran for eight seasons and 182 episodes. Every single one of them, a solid gold classic.

That's what Courtney Thorneith was on for all that time i didn't know that that's where i wonder if she gets more residuals out of that than she does for melrose place it's great looking at whatever shows are on tv now just any of those ncis type shows and just finding out what happened to actors you used to know like chris o'donnell is the biggest star on tv basically just like not among anyone we know but for millions of people he's bigger than ever it's where lawrence fishburne has done so much of his work for the last 10 years i think gary sinise as well am i correct about this that's right good for gary sinise good for all of them right before it becomes the santa claus parody they do briefly

do a i guess this is a death takes a holiday kind of parody or maybe meet joe black though is there is that a plot point that nobody's dying during meet joe black i think that is the thing in death takes a holiday i think they're doing a family guy parody actually right yeah and mo even if he thinks he's going to be dead soon he won't leave a tip for that pizza guy like money is meaningless to him, but he'd rather be an asshole. So Homer is then sad over the corpse of the Grim Reaper, and then he's just going to dump a pile of bones to the curb. That's when he puts it on, and just like Santa Claus rules, he becomes the new Grim Reaper by putting on the clothes, which, Will, you andke did a really great santa

claus podcast a few years back that i really enjoyed i really enjoyed your guys's review of the santa claus oh thanks i mean we're doing the real serious political commentary you know the really important work doing a leftist analysis of the santa claus folks that's why we make the big box i think you've covered the whole trilogy am am I right? I recall some chat about the third, the Jack Frost movie. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I invented chill and all that. You know, lest your listeners like judge me too much for covering the Santa Claus and its sequels on my leftist film podcast. I realize that sounds really, really lame. But sometimes we find that the most anodyne, kind of the most like normal milquetoast movies are the ones where you can sort of see what the ideology of the times are. I promise I'm not out there to cancel the Santa Claus 3, the escape clause for you.

They're just interesting case studies, though. There was another movie oh yeah when we talked about despicable me too we were just thinking about the santa claus too as well because in both those sequels they assign a wife to the single man main character you know a few months ago we went to see the new willy wonka movie the one with timothy chalamet and first of all whatever you know perfectly serviceable children's movie but i think it's interesting that like in the year 2023, like when they make a Willy Wonka movie, Willy Wonka is sort of reconceptualized as a disruptor, you know? That's how movies like this sort of reflect the ideologies or the just stuff that's in the air of the current moment. Because you can imagine, well, you know, some writer,

some writer directing team went to the studio and they were looking for Willy Wonka pitches and they were like, OK, what's a way to make Willy Wonka relevant in the year 2023? Well, this is how you make it relevant. You know, you kind of learn a lot from about your current moment by watching, you know, whatever Willy Wonka movie is being made in that moment. He's a chocolate Elon Musk. Think about it. Exactly. Exactly. The movie writes itself well that's like how that uh cruella deville live action movie was about how she was actually

kind of the original punk and then the start of the punk scene in england really cruella was oh man yeah yeah i should check that one out oh you'll have a good time so homer has become death the destroyer of worlds and now he is on a hunt for souls dad you've become the new grim reaper no way forget it i might occasionally kill out of anger or to illustrate a point but i am not a grim reaper oh Oh! Oh! I'll reap! I'll reap already! Jasper, your time has come! Where's the regular guy? Where's Doug? Never mind, I'm death now.

Oh. I liked Doug. Ah! My Dad's Job My dad's job takes him to all parts of the community. He performs a valuable service, but is often misunderstood, My dad's job. My dad's job takes him to all parts of the community. He performs a valuable service, but is often misunderstood, like a vulture or the flesh-eating maggot. Would anyone like to see Mr. Simpson harvest a soul?

Yeah! You said something about a hot meal? Yeah! Boy, if John Schwarzwalder can put a hobo in a script and then kill the hobo he's never been happier i think that's my favorite joke in the episode the expectant way he takes his hat off and he's like well hot meal like it's just so this expectant sad hobo yeah he's finally getting his hot meal like it's just they're gonna murder him in front of everybody and that his life is so worthless the kids love it yeah yeah i laughed too boys i thought it was really funny um actually you know you're playing these clips to me and i just hear myself

chuckling through them and i know i said earlier that i didn't think this was a very good episode and i guess i stand by that but man i don't know even a not great simpsons episode in you know still in season 15 there are jokes you know there's funny stuff yeah no i like that jasper is used to this doug guy he's died apparently enough times or has been near death for so long jasper's come to recognize the different grim reapers then we go to a baseball game for a a nice long shot of homer killing a bunch of people and i like that it's a mix as they're trying to move up to the better seats and i like that it's some random characters and then he does just kill kirk van houten and reverend lovejoy with little

reference that he's killing named characters there will you're a big stooge expert as well what do you think of this Three Stooges parody in here? Oh, I'm always happy to see a Three Stooges parody. I mean, what other vaudeville act from the 1920s has had such a long lasting cultural legacy, you know? Stooge awareness is at an all time low. No one knows to just do this when someone's about to gouge your eyes out. That's right. Bob is doing the thing where he puts his hand in between his eyes to prevent the double eye poke from penetrating the eye sockets. Does it not work if you don't say, you have to make a noise when you do it, right? What usually happens is one stooge, you know, as Moe's two fingered salute is on its way to your eye sockets.

Yeah, you put up your hand to block it. But then pride cometh before the fall because the stooge will always take his hand down and go, yeah, yeah. And then Mo will just poke him in the eye right after that. And they never learn. It happens over and over again. Proper stooge strategy here, folks. You're learning. And yes, Homer kills all these people, even the wealthy dowager.

She's killed by freak accident i like that he does not have to intervene there at all that is really good you're right she's hit by a foul ball and homer just was doing it for extra fun but after all that like you said well this has to speed through it so fast partially because they did an opening so this first segment has to be real short. So they killed death. Homer becomes death and does that job. And now immediately you have to have the twist of, okay, then you have to kill somebody you love.

Will you do it? Which in the Family Guy episode, he has to kill the cast of Dawson's Creek as well as an entire plane full of children. And he chooses not to do that. In this case, it's Marge. And you think that he did it of course this god does not know that homer didn't do it and for the only time in the episode he needs to be presented with a body to have it count for god's sake but i chuckled at the reveal that it was

patty with marge's hair attached to it i did did laugh. I thought this segment was very funny, and I feel like John Swartzwelder had to be the one to pitch a motorcycle chase against God, where God is chasing you, and somehow God can be cut off by a train. Yes, and that he's too old and too rich to bother with this anymore, which I feel like that's what a lot of Simpsons writers feel that way right now, too old and too rich. Yeah, yeah, no kidding. Were you troubled at all by the moment where Homer wakes up in the morning and his assignment

is to kill Marge? And he says, no, no, anyone but Marge. And then he sees his own name, Homer Simpson. And then he says, what was the first one again? And I was troubled by that moment of selfishness on Homer's part. I realize this is non-canonical, but if there's one thing you can depend on in Homer, it's his love of Marge above all things, even when he's screwing up. And I was a little troubled that if push came to shove, he might choose Marge to kill before

himself. Yes, he's acting rather Peter Griffin-y, if I may say that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Peter Griffin would murder Lois and Meg in this situation, unprompted, but yeah. Well, you know, Homer had a plan, Will. That's how we, you know, it's troubling at first, but he had a plan to kill Patty instead. That's true. And God thinks it's Selma when it's Patty, and it is Patty with her dress and hair.

Don't get him confused, folks. My only problem with this chase which is fun and I like seeing Homer on the motorcycle it feels like they're practicing for the movie with this motorcycle chase but the music is the exact music they used for this Mannix chase scene that they did in Homer the Heretic which also had the train jumping sequence. Thought to me like Alf Clausen, the composer, knew, oh, we're doing this again? Well, I don't need to write a new song for this.

I already have the Manic style parody, and we'll just play it. That's deeper lore than I can opine on, but I respect it. I appreciated the reuse of that cue because it was perfect for the 70s set piece. Homer has a motorcycle hidden in a bush. He knows when the train is coming after he fools God. I like the logic of all of this. It does feel very Schwarzwald-ery to me. Homer gets home and we see that Marge just has her hair chopped off to be used in that.

And she's giving him an extra pork chop for not killing her. And Homer says, well, I'm going to have to not kill you every every week and the whole family laughs and we just fade out that's fun it's a cute though there's deleted character art for this episode where they had a scrap design for marge where she kind of made her hair into a comb over instead of the flat top i don't know which is better the comb over the flat top but they they went with the flat top. Also, to let you know how long they worked on this, the character designs are dated for November of 2002. So it was a whole year in between production on this or more than that, really. But all right, let's get to the mid episode main event, really, especially for our guest here. It's Frankenstein with special guest Jerry Lewis.

I really would love, Will, to set the stage for us where Jerry Lewis is around this time. I remember him showing up on a lot of talk shows looking very puffy around 2003. I don't know if he was always on the talk show circuit, but I remember him making a lot of appearances. And this maybe is one of the many he was making during that time period. Well, I mean, Jerry Lewis had had a very successful 1990s, actually. He was in Damn Yankees on Broadway, which later toured all over America. And I think he was briefly the highest paid person in Broadway history. So he had had a bit of a comeback with that. But then in the early 2000s, I mean, you know, like when you would see Jerry Lewis for

the most part was at the annual Labor Day Telethon for muscular dystrophy, which I, of course, watched every year. I remember there was one year, I think it was either 2002 or 2003, when all of a sudden he showed up being bloated. You know, he looked like 400 pounds, basically. He had an oxygen tank on him. And you thought, oh, my God, what's going on with Jerry? This is really alarming. And he's somebody who had had bad health issues for a long time. You know, he'd had bypass surgery.

I think at this time in particular, he'd had a lot of bad reactions. I mean, he'd been addicted to painkillers for a long time. All things that happened to Krusty. Yeah, Krusty's pacemaker, his percadent addiction. Yeah, that's all straight from Jerry Lewis. And it's actually, you know, it's a bit of a cop-out that they got Jerry Lewis to do the voice of Professor Frank's father. You know, the nutty professor, I guess, was sort of the inspiration on Frank, but he's so much more the inspiration on Krusty. I feel like they kind of copped out when they got Jackie Mason instead of

Jerry Lewis to be his father in that episode. At this point, I guess he got the medication right afterwards, because by the next telethon, he was sort of back to looking like his normal self. But it was really alarming at that moment. I do have, you know, as to whether he was on the talk show circuit more or less than any other time. I mean, I remember him kind of being semi-regularly on David Letterman in the 90s. He was on Larry King all the time. I think the two of them were friends. And in fact, in front of me, I have an interview that Jerry Lewis did on The Larry King Show in 2003, in August 2003, right before this episode, where he talks about, you know, the various health issues

that have afflicted him. A caller asks, my question is, what is your opinion of these cartoons the kids are watching, like The Simpsons and SpongeBob and such? And Jerry says, and I'll just quote him, I think it's worth saying, I think the cartoons that the children are watching, particularly The Simpsons, they're okay. I think that the adult audience is making too much of the danger that they imply. That's not the case. The danger for children today, honey, is the news. Keep them away from the news on television

and you're going to have very, very fine, natural children. As long as they can see the news and what the networks are doing to the youth of America, you've got big problems, lady. I don't have his audio, but I hope he said, lady. And then Larry King interjects to say, you're on The Simpsons, aren't you?

You're doing a voice. And Lewis says, yes, I do a voice on The Simpsons. But you let them see The Simpsons, please. And let that be in lieu of watching general television. So I don't know what news specifically he was reacting to. I like to think he was offended by the lies of the Bush administration being reported so uncritically at this time. I'm guessing probably not, but he leaves it vague. So he didn't make a Steve Allen turn late in life, I take it.

Maybe he was noticing what Steve Allen was doing as a comic contemporary. He's like, don't be complaining like Steve Allen like these things things i don't know though it definitely sounds like he was being true to form with talking down to a woman there i will say yeah yeah he had his own simpsons with will the real jerry lewis please sit down although he did not voice himself in that cartoon jerry lewis had a comic book in the 60s and 70s as well there's a great in fact hang on i have this here hey jerry lewis meets bat. There's a great, in fact, hang on, I have this here. Hey, Jerry Lewis meets Batman. That's a classic. Batman, Robin and the Joker, the dynamic duo face their daffiest peril. It's ho ho homicide when Batman meets Jerry. So that's pretty good. I have this for $10. You know, I briefly thought Will was going to grab the picture of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin

in the shower that was recently unearthed. That photo. And whenever that photo goes viral, you know, whenever it goes viral, like 15 people tag me in it as if I haven't seen it, as if it's not my job to have seen photos like that when they surface. You know, for most of us, it was the first time that we saw Jerry Lewis's penis. I'll be the first to admit. And Dean Martin's penis, too know it's a quality member i've said this on other penis talk on this show it's like if we're measuring flaccid fine okay but that's not you know that's not the number that counts as much to me but who hasn't seen dean martin's penis honest you know if people don't know what

we're talking about it's like it was the apparently some photo shoot from the 50s, you know, from the height of their fame, Dean Martin and Jerry mob boss because they all controlled like the casino circuit at that time some mob boss might have had this as like you know collateral yeah just waving it over them to do their bidding i mean i don't know uh i don't know why they would have allowed a camera to be in there what they were doing but it's an interesting series of photos because one of the things that has sort of been like subtexts or the tensions of Martin and Lewis is their incredible homoeroticism. They're classic, like old school Vegas guys who are like super straight. You know, they love the broads, but they're always talking about how much they love each other. And they're always like kissing each other and hugging each other. And I just watched Artists artists and models this weekend for

the first time i loved it i loved it so much because it is like directed by frank tashlin who's a looney tunes legend it's live action looney tunes he's just doing the jokes he would have done in a bugs bunny cartoon except in live action with martin and lewis jerry lewis at his height of his abilities and shirley mclean rules, too, in it and is doing so much great stuff. Martin and Lewis, like they basically sleep in the same bed together. They are kissing each other all through the movie. They're slapping each other's butts a ton of times like they are just so chummy. I'm like, guys, you don't need to date the two female roommates upstairs.

You're good. And around the time this episode of The Simpsons aired, Jerry had a new autobiography out called Dean and Me, A Love Story, where he, you know, basically positions it as such. And whenever he would talk about their splitting up, he would always refer to it as the breakup. He would always talk about it in terms of like a marriage that didn't work and how sort of hearts sick he was about the end of it and yeah i mean there are a million comedy teams before them you know there are all those three stooges shorts where they were like sleeping in the same bed together but i do think they were the first comedy team where they were like young good-looking guys who had sexual tension

basically and what's wild about those photos of them nude in the shower is it almost makes the subtext text, you know? You know, I experienced Jerry Lewis kind of... He was a guy who's like, okay, so he's a telethon guy, and sometimes I see him do interviews and stuff. I barely ever saw the things that made him... And he hates women, apparently. That's the other thing everyone knows.

And I was introduced to him through the endless parodies of him that I loved on Animaniacs and Freakazoid, especially Serious Jerry. Paul Rugg loved doing the Serious Jerry voice. Mr. Director, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And Jerry had a book called The Total Filmmaker. I think it's a great book, but I mean, you know, he was really setting himself up for mockery. I mean, you could just imagine the headspace of someone who becomes so famous being Jerry Lewis. It happens to guys like that sometimes, but they really affect the kind of like intellectual posture. You could see it in that Larry King interview where that pseudo-profundity of being like, oh, cartoons are one thing, but it's the news,

honey, that's really poisoning our children. Yeah, I think the only Jerry Lewis movie I've seen is The King of Comedy, which is not indicative of his body of work. And I was introduced to him through the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon because it was appointment television in my

grandma's house. I lived with my grandma for a time. And it's weird when you're young, you're learning about comedy. Who's funny? I like Rick Moranis. I like John Candy. And your grandmother is telling you, this is the funniest man who ever lived. And it's just this old guy who's crying and singing, you'll never walk alone.

And you're wondering, what am I? Is this supposed to be funny? What am I missing? And then all the parodies to follow. And I still have never seen an actual Jerry Lewis heyday film. Well, I mean, Henry, you mentioned artists and models where you can kind of see very much at the height of his abilities. If you watch him on the Colgate Comedy Hour, which was a 50s variety show with Dean Martin, it sort of captures a bit of the energy that they are said to have had when

they were live. You know, nobody had seen a comedian who was as manic as Jerry Lewis was. You know, he had extraordinary physical gifts. But then as a director, you know, it's no coincidence that Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut and all those guys loved Jerry Lewis as a director because he was doing insane things with the form. An example that everybody cites

is his movie, The Ladies's Man, which if you watch one Jerry Lewis movie, that's probably the one I would recommend. The fact that he shot it all on this huge dollhouse set, the biggest set that had ever been constructed in Hollywood up to that point, something that Goddard and Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig and many other filmmakers, I think she has cited that movie as an influence on the set design of Barbie. Many have taken, you know, a page out of Jerry's visual book for that. The crazy things he was doing with like narrative and sound,

the things that he was doing with humor in all those movies that he directed, like the gags don't unfold in an ordinary like set up punchline. Oftentimes he'll give you the punchline and then he'll just drag out the humor on and on. And I feel like if you're somebody who's become a little bit alienated with comedy, those movies have much to offer as a sort of proto anti-comedy. He's one of my favorite artists, frankly. I can't say enough about him as a performer and as a filmmaker,

but I realized there are many barriers to appreciating him or to wanting to engage with his work, most of which he himself is responsible for. Yeah, he is a difficult artist. Also, I guess he got famous so young. I can see, too, why by the time he's being treated as an elder statesman of comedy in just the 80s when it for king of the king of comedy and that was like his return after the 70s were like him as this elder statesman it's like he'd live another 30 years from the king of comedy onward longer even i also love the king of comedy which i feel like it should be illegal to make the joker so similar to it i feel like i just should be like should be against the law, I think.

Even if you put Robert De Niro in it. I mean. Yeah, King of Comedy. I mean, one of my very favorite movies. And Jerry Lewis is just incredible in it. Jerry Lewis does some interesting things in his performance in that the shifting of his persona in public and private and in Rupert Pupkin's dream sequences, the way he acts in that incredible dream sequence where he's like complimenting Rupert on all of his on his comedy, like you've got it and you're stuck with it.

And I don't care if you want to get rid of it. You couldn't. But then when he's in private and Jerry just like dials the performance down so much, he does so much with so little, just his facial expressions in that movie are insane. I love the man. And Will, are we closer than ever to actually getting to see The Day the Clown Cried? Well, so the story with that is when he donated his archives to the Library of Congress, supposedly there were some reels in there that were The Day the Clown Cried, and he donated it with the stipulation that it couldn't screen in any form for 10 years. And there are some people, I mean, friend of your show, Harry Shearer, claims that he saw The Day the Clown Cried, claims that there was like a work print that somebody close to Jerry showed him. But the Library of Congress insists that there's no completed film,

that it's just random elements, which is probably true. At the Venice Film Festival this fall, there's going to be a documentary about the Day the Clown Cried that incorporates some footage. But there has actually already been a documentary a few years ago released in Germany called Der Clown

that has probably 20 minutes of footage from the movie, including the famous final scene where Jerry leads the children, you know, dressed as a clown to the gas chambers. And I don't know, like a lot of the stuff you would want, it's out there if you look for it. It will probably never screen because it's not a completed film. It'll probably never screen in any real capacity. But I would just say that I'm actually very sympathetic to the day the clown cried. I think, you know, possibly it was a failed object, you know, but I'm sympathetic to Jerry Lewis as like a Jewish artist in the early 1970s when not many things, you know, the Holocaust industry as such was not like up and running yet. He was trying to make a movie that sort of dealt with that and also tried

to deal with the possibility of like entertainment being complicit in an atrocity like that. I don't know, from what I've seen of it, it honestly seems like kind of a noble attempt. And I feel like a lot of the jokes about The Day the Clown Cried are premised on the idea that Jerry Lewis isn't worth taking seriously as an artist. So like, you know, how ridiculous that he would make this clown Holocaust movie. I don't know why I get so emotional talking about the day that I cried. It's just been this curiosity for 50 years. I just want to know what goes on in the film. There is footage out there. You can actually see some of the main footage and it looks like,

I mean, he got B.B. Anderson to be in it. It was really his swing, you know, for Oscar, apparently. You mentioned Harry Shearer and his connection to it. And I think that many writers on The Simpsons love Jerry Lewis, but they also like the dirt with Jerry Lewis. They like his like, there's some irony to their love of Jerry Lewis, like him complaining on talk shows. And lest I sound too like holy, lest I sound too holy, I do too. You can't love Jerry Lewis and not love laughing at Jerry Lewis. You know, he's ridiculous. But one guy really loves Jerry Lewis and has since long before he was given a character called Professor Frank and said, well, what do you do for this perhaps nutty professor that we've written into the show. Well, Hank Azaria decided he would base it on his hero growing up, and he had been doing a...

Even when Professor Frank transforms into a ladies' man from drinking the Simpson & Son tonic, he then turns into the alter ego from the nutty professor as well. So Azaria had been apparently pushing them for a long time to get jerry lewis to be on the show for real to complete this parody and i have a clip of azaria from a few years after this episode aired explaining why he wanted it to happen and how it worked out uh and the writers were worried about it because they heard that Jerry could be kind of difficult and tough to please and you know, so they were really trepidatious and I really nagged them about it.

And it was fantastic. We flew to Vegas to record with him and it was one of the happiest days of my life. Because I grew up, you know, he was one of the happiest days of my life. Because I grew up, you know, he was one of the guys I threw on when I was five years old when I shouldn't have been watching television. So I'd just be reduced to tears laughing so hard when I was a kid. I could tell he was touched by it. I could tell he felt, he said, I remember I would quote a lot of his obscure lines. He didn't only do The Nutty professor is that he did a few other much lesser movies as that character and i knew all of them and knew obscure lines from all of them and he said uh

you've been paying attention haven't you and i said oh yes yes yes yes so i think he was kind of flattered and moved by that he was very sweet to me love it so there you go yeah yeah it seemed like he was fairly pleasant to work with. I think he only really wanted to talk to Hank Azaria and was annoyed to get direction. And based on the audio recording you can tell he could only get so close to the microphone. They couldn't coax him any

closer. There's a lot of room tone in his performance that's not there in Hank Azaria's performance. By the way, did you know that Louis C.K. wanted Jerry Lewis to be on that arc on his show, the one that David Lynch eventually played? David Lynch was like the network executive who was guiding Louis C.K. through the talk show. He apparently wanted Jerry Lewis for that.

But I know they just called Jerry's office and some manager was like, Mr. Lewis is not interested at this time. I think it's too bad. It would have been nice to see him. It's amazing the Simpsons got at him. It would have been nice to see him try some more interesting things towards the end of his life. My theory on how they got him for the Simpsons was they're like, well, this isn't live action, so we just need one hour. We're just going to go to your dressing room or wherever you live in Vegas. We'll record you. Don't dress up. Don't anything.

And you don't even have to learn lines. We'll give them to you on the day. On top of that, I also do wonder if it helped that he had at the time, they say 11-year-old daughter on the commentary. I do think him having a surprisingly, well, I mean, not surprisingly, every old man celebrity now has a baby these days, but it maybe happened less back then. Actually, yeah, his co-star from The King of Comedy had a baby much older than Jerry Lewis did. Like Robert De Niro just had a baby.

He can't stop. My God. I like that he was so game for this because we talked about Jackie Mason. When he played Krusty's dad. It's kind of a silly role, but they're respectful to him and Judaism and everything. It feels like something he'd be into this role for Jerry Lewis. You're going to play a monster who kills people, rips out their organs, decapitates people on camera. Are you going to do this? And

he's just like, yeah, sure. One bit that Azaria didn't mention, but Gene mentions in his recollection of recording with Jerry Lewis was that James L. Brooks came to and that Jerry Lewis had a lot of respect for Jim Brooks. He said he complimented Jim Brooks for all of his movies, and he did compliment Hank Azaria's performance in The Birdcage specifically. But it doesn't sound like Jerry Lewis had anything nice to say like specifically about The Simpsons. So funny. What a good show. Didn't sound like he had anything to say about that. A guy that age, I guess he probably would have been in his 70s at that time. It's just interesting to know like what are the cultural things that have made it into their brains at that point. So he knew probably Terms of endearment and he knew the birdcage. He liked Robin Williams. That was probably what it was. That's probably what got

him out to the birdcage. I was impressed to hear that he had actually seen the birdcage, but I would guess it was probably like, oh, Robin, he's nice to me. He likes me. Yeah. I'm sure he's nice to me was a big thing to get Jerry Lewis out to see something in those days. And I do also think another reason they wrote this sketch or this segment around Jerry Lewis, it is because he himself was nominated but did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated in 1977 for the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as getting the Legion of Honor from France in 1984, which was, I think Al Jean should have been worried that he might have heard about how many times they made fun of like, oh, everybody in France loves Jerry Lewis. They have terrible taste. Like that was a lot of jokes back in the 90s. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, that joke is the hackiest of hack jokes. I would

just say like the people who are making fun of Jerry Lewis for being beloved in France back in the 60s, you know, the movies that they were praising were just like, you know, the shittiest, most turgid Hollywood prestige crap. All that stuff that has aged so much more poorly than the weird and innovative stuff that Jerry was doing with his camera. I do like the critic, though.

I don't mean to shit on it but no everybody was making fun of how the french love it like same with animaniacs i feel like had a million jokes about how the french love jerry lewis yeah but all right the episode begins though with john frank the professor being offered the nobel prize but it instead is a phone call that homer accepts lisa lets hit them know she'll pass it along i do love that homer just says well it's about time like he's been expecting a nobel prize for a very long time for his whole deal it's a perfect swartzwalder gag that lisa replies to the man calling in swedish and he just Yump and yim and he, like he's in an old West movie, like a John Wayne movie.

Then we cut to Professor Frank and he is very excited. He has built a hammer with a screwdriver attached to it, which is how he won. It was a slow year. And this is where it leads to our first of two deleted scenes. In the first deleted scene, it was not this screwdriver hammer that got him his nobel prize let's hear what he explains it was great glaven in a glass the nobel prize at last they've

recognized my work in developing a ray to remove the clothes from tv stars all the looking and Beverly Hillbill scenes at this time. There's two other Beverly Hillbilly jokes in season 14 of The Simpsons alone. They loved writing scenes of Granny talking to Ellie Mae. This feels like a remnant of The Simpsons of old. You know, the referencing of forgotten boomer ephemera. And I love it. The fact that it sort of climaxes on a Jennifer Aniston joke, I like a little bit less. It lacks the soul of some of these boomer-ish Simpsons jokes. addressed the reason why her nipples were so prominent on friends why they were showing through her clothing so much she actually because people were wondering it was a hallmark of the show if you're a heterosexual 12 year old like me when the show came on you would say oh i like this show it's funny and also there's this other quality too that we're going to talk about later in life but she says to address the nipple gate i guess she says yeah i don't know what to say

about that it's just one of those things i guess i wear a bra i don't know what to say about that it's just one of those things i guess i wear a bra i don't know what to tell you and i don't know why i'm supposed to be ashamed of them it's just the way my breasts are but hey i'm not going to complain so jennifer aniston is aware of the nipple issue and she's happy with it she's not going to apologize good as well she should be it's also funny that any friend's joke always makes me chuckle with Azaria having to deliver it because he almost was on Friends. And when Matthew Perry passed away, that was his extra rough for him because he was one of Matthew Perry's best friends. I think he's working through his grief with his new touring Bruce Springsteen cover band. I think that's part of it.

Will, would you pay to see Hank Azaria sing Bruce Springsteen cover band. I think that's part of it. Like, Will, would you pay to see Hank Azaria sing Bruce Springsteen songs? It depends how much money and how near my house. If it was just down the street and it were like 10 bucks, I would absolutely go just to be in the presence of Hank Azaria. I think it's all a plan to lure out Bruce Springsteen, trap him, and then force him to be on the show. They've never been able to get him yet oh wow you know if you watched him sleepwalk his way through curb your enthusiasm this last season of the show they should say to him like come on you

have no prestige left to lose like just do the simpsons yeah he's a podcaster for christ's sake yes but we find out that frank is sad because he isn't connecting with his father over this. And this is where we get our first scene of Jerry Lewis on The Simpsons. I only wish my dear father were here to see me win. Is there a problem with your father? Well, our relationship was never great. Mother used to say we got along like positrons and anti-neutrinos. Oh, yes, I'm a geek.

I was always a disappointment to him. You see, he was one of those He-Man scientists who worked on the atom bomb by day and slept with Marilyn Monroe by night and sold secrets to the Russians at lunch. The last time I saw him alive, he was going to study sharks. I don't want to go on this oceanographic expedition, Father. I get seasick taking a shower.

Clean but nauseous. Clean but nauseous. With the rolling and the heaving and the you make me sick. You've disgraced the name of John Nardlebaum, Fring. But, Father, I... I'm lying around. sick you've disgraced the name of john nerdle down fring but father i though the question remains like canonically is this really his dad i should have looked up more if they followed up on this if this is just only frank's dad in a halloween context or it's a halloween story about frank's dad but in the real world his dad is this you know he shows up in a Halloween context, or it's a Halloween story about Frank's dad, but in the real world, his dad is this. You know, he shows up in

a couple more episodes as a photo in one, and then in the episode Frank Coin from, when is this from? 2020. He's referenced or he appears. So thank you, Simpsons fandom wiki for that. Oh, thank you for looking that up, Bob. Thank you. I'm glad you played that clip, by the way, because I was carefully paying attention to see if I could notice a difference in audio quality in Jerry Lewis's bits.

And I think you kind of do. There's a very slight, more echoey sound in Jerry's dialogue. I love that he was game before they said, okay, this guy's a nutty professor. Can you, you know, do that? Can you just nutty it up a little bit? Yeah, yeah. No, I don't. Yeah. Oh, can I tell you, this is a fun Jerry Lewis anecdote. I mentioned that he was in Damn Yankees. I saw him in that

show and I think the year 1999, he came to Toronto with it and he was much praised in that show for being quite restrained. He played the devil in that show. And for the whole first half, he's very like King of Comedy Jerry. He's very like, you know, the cool mob boss kind of Jerry. And then there comes a point in the second half where he says, hey, lady, and the whole place erupted. It was pandemonium when he did that. So he knew very much what it meant to jerry it up on Mike. That's great. God. He knows how to please crowds, but it also feels like that's part of his later in life thing.

It seemed like he intentionally was like, well, I don't want to please you. Like, yeah, I know what would please you and I'm holding it back. The other time I saw him live, I think in 2012, I think it was, I saw him at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca where there was like a birthday event for him. Richard Belzer interviewed him on stage and Joe Piscopo was in the audience. I'm painting a visual picture for you. And I remember at the Q&A after, oh, Jerry Stiller was there too. That's one more name drop for you. And at the Q&A after, you know, Jerry, who at that point, he can't walk all that much. He's pretty old and tired.

He sits on a chair and he says, now, when you come up, ask me a question. Don't tell me how much you love me. I know how much you love me. It means the world. But we've got to keep it moving today so everybody can get their question in. I don't know. I love that. But then after that, it was just every question was just him like insulting, you know, everybody who asked him a question the writer nick pinkerton had a funny quip where he

said something like jerry lewis will be on stage and he'll talk about how much he loves and respects the audience but his respect does not extend to the audience as individual members yes well speaking of king of comedy like i was trying to find it last night because i was like i know i saw this interview but i couldn't find it but it was in the 80s when he was talking about the movie later in life I think he was just very very much like oh yeah Marty was great and I loved working with him on this but in the 80s I saw an interview with him where he's like why do people compliment me so much for this movie he told me to stand there and I said my words and then I walked away like I didn't do anything on that movie also that movie was hard for him because, and I think he said this in interviews at the time,

you know, he wasn't used to working with, De Niro would do like 40 or 50 takes on some of these. And there was a lot of, you know, improvisation that kind of rattled Jerry a little bit. The scene, you know, halfway through where Rupert invades Jerry Langford's house like that was apparently an extremely difficult scene for everybody to shoot and one of the ways that they got Jerry Lewis to you know give such a great performance in that scene was like between takes Robert De Niro was like baiting him with anti-semitic remarks you know he was like whispering to like Hitler the right idea about you Jews and that's what made him like erupt. And I think that was when you read interviews with him at the time, like, you know, I think he was still a little shaken from the experience of making that movie.

But, yeah, you're right. Towards the end, it was very much like, oh, Marty was the best, you know. So we come out of that flashback and Frank's dad seemingly Lisa takes that story to mean Frank's dad is just emotionally distant but Frank was actually telling her that story because that's the last time he saw him before he was killed by a shark that took a huge bite out of thanks to his blood-based suntan lotion but now he can finally reanimate him thanks to all the time he's going to save with his new hammer and screwdriver combo which cute too i like that so he has reanimated frankenstein style that's why it's called frankenstein and once he's back to life he's got so much energy i'm alive with the breathing and the tingling and the what's this radiator where my puppet should be oh Oh, Papa, you're back. Ugh. Now we had to replace several vital organs with machinery, but that doesn't make you any less of a man,

except you have no penis. In the, uh, traditional sense. So what am I, some kind of a tin can man from Planet Tomorrow? Sir, your son has brought you into the 21st century. It's a lot like the 20th, except everybody's afraid and the stock market is much lower. Polly don't like that cracker.

I'm getting me a real spleen, and then I'm gonna vent it on you, boy chick. Eye shoving. It almost sounded like he plans to tear organs out of living people. Well, that's my dad. You can't stop him. Hey, 700 Club, you look like a healthy specimen.

Well, I did finish first in the walk for the cure of homosexuality. Say, ah, baby. Ah! I'm dying! And there's Heaven. But who's that? Confucius. And there's Heaven. But who's that? Confucius.

And Milton Berle. Boy, have I been barking up the wrong tree. Hearing him say 700 Club gave me a good chuckle. Just hearing all these Jerry Lewis-isms. He's lapsing into the classic Jerry voice, I think, once per line. And that's what people want. I enjoy it very much. This is catnip for me.

In there where he says, what's this radiator doing where my puppet should be? First off, that's Yiddish for like navel or gizzard, at least according to Yiddish online websites I checked. Which it's very funny, just both him and Frank are just throwing in so many like Yiddish Jewish comedy lines in there. But this was the one negative story Al Jean had to tell about working with Jerry Lewis, which was that Jerry Lewis said radiator instead of radiator, which Al Jean admits he would later learn is a accepted way of pronunciation for it. But he corrects him. Alan says he as gingerly as possible he's correcting him like could you say it again as radiator and then he said he quotes him specifically he says lewis replied you know there's a point when the kid vanishes and the idiot comes out

that's a classic jerryism you would see that in a lot of his like serious interviews when he'd be talking about his persona where he'd be like inside i'm nine at a nine-year-old like trying to be really analytical about it all but he did it he didn't say aljean was worried he was going to get the shatner treatment of like, yeah, well, I say a radiator. And no, I'm not going to repeat it. Yeah. I don't love, oh, and you don't have a penis anymore. But I do love how Azaria goes in the traditional sense.

Like his delivery made me chuckle at it. On a cheap, you no longer have a penis joke. But to really fit us in 2003, Ned Flanders, we've said it before, he is a conservative Christian now. He's not the nicest Christian in the world. Instead of just having a march for the cure and he would donate his organs for anybody, Ned is trying to cure homosexuality and is upset that Jewish people and Chinese people could be in heaven. I'm curious what you guys think of that because it rubs me the wrong way a little bit. And I'm not sure I'm right to feel that way.

Led Flanders, you know, from maybe season two-ish onward, season three onward, always had the very Christian streak to him. And then he is the vessel in this time period for evangelical Christian jokes because there's no one else that they have to serve that purpose. And of course, we were born again Christian as the president of America. It does make sense. I think they do back off of that once Bush is out of office and we get the Obama years and so on. But he really does serve this purpose for a long time, unfortunately, becomes a lot less likable. I think what's complicated about it is like during the golden age of the show, I think you were basically supposed to understand Ned Flanders as a good man. Like he's annoying. You know, he's a religious zealot, but like he's a good father. He's a good upstanding member of the community. He's a much better man in a lot of ways than Homer is. Homer often is like sort of unfavorably compared to him. And so I think it's alarming to sort of see like the bigoted side of Ned Flanders. Yeah, even in episodes about him, there have been a few recently in our timeline now where he's dating new women because Maude is dead. Even

there, they're trying to make him more likable, but there are jokes where he imagines when he dates this movie star that his children become Jewish and it's a shock and horror to him. So they still like to get their jabs in at conservative Christians, but it's at odds with them making him likable. I think in the past, his conservative Christianity and his goodiness was often harmful to himself, not to other people. Or it'd be wasting his time, it would be giving too much, but here it is you know directed

at other people in a harmful way i think of when he called reverend lovejoy and said like you know i'm meek but i could stand to be meeker like it was more his expression of his extreme christianity was to be like so christ-like forgiving turn the other cheek every single time, put up with every horrible thing Homer does to you that he wouldn't. Now, yeah, he doesn't like a single mom and that would like goes against his religious beliefs, but he would not be like outwardly negative to them or trying to cure homosexuality. But yeah, this is the era of, especially if you don't like George W. Bush then and you're a Hollywood writer, like a major thing you're going to harp on is the inherent hypocriticalness of conservative Christianity, which is totally fair game. And I, they should be mocked, but it does make me sad that Ned has turned into somebody

who would march for the cure to homosexuality. It makes me sad that Ned's there. Then Skinner gets his spine ripped out as well i do love a curvy spine is the devil's roller coaster and the drawing of him looking up at his mother who's just telling him he's literally spineless now from that angle like it's a very funny drawing then there's another very well done shot it feels like a family guy joke the actual like comedy is not what i like but the animators were tasked with do the first person staying alive strut to camera but do it with an asymmetrical character who's made out of a patchwork of identifiable body parts the animators were given a very difficult thing and they did it very well yeah animated reflection too on top of that

and that yes god i think that's why they don't say it on the commentary but that's why he only looks like this for this one sequence and he's normal again the next time you see him on the dvd you can see the character model for it and you can see that one of his legs is supposed to be disco stews but it's miscolored so it's hard to tell he's also supposed to have moe's neck though you can't really read that too well i guess i'm looking at it now he's got the bow tie yes it may be like one of mr burns's arms one arms is snakes now one arm is flanders i think no no it's snakes arm it's got the thing rolled up there's one arm with like a green sleeve maybe it's smithers arm oh no it's burns if you see when he's walking he's got it in the burns t-rex yeah and also he's supposed to be

wearing nelson's vest as well in it this is when lisa talks to him i do also chuckle that elder frank has many scenes with lisa like i think he was giving interviews some then about his thoughts on women in comedy, but later he'd be very outspoken about Jerry Lewis's feelings on women in comedy. So it's funny that he has partnered with Lisa. That's the main Simpson he talks to in this episode is Lisa. Because I just logged on Letterboxd. Will, I read yours and you're a Letterboxd superstar. You're the king of letterbox. You made the great point of like, why did he say women aren't funny when Shirley MacLaine is the second funniest person and nearly as funny as him in Artist and Models? Well, yeah, this dance scene between the

two of them, this incredible acrobatic display that they do is extraordinary. I'm going to say this not to defend Jerry Lewis, but just to add a wrinkle to his character. There are like female comedians that he would speak very complementarily about, like he was a huge fan and supporter of Carol Burnett, for instance, and he would talk about her a lot in documentaries, reaching pretty far back. But he would also speak a lot about Toadie Fields, who impressed him in vaudeville and i think he spoke he there are interviews where he had kind words to say about ellen degeneres and whoopi goldberg i'm saying this not to defend him because if he was in front of you and you asked him are women funny he'd probably say no you know he was like an old school kind of guy like that he was obviously like deeply

misogynistic and you could see it in his art a lot. But then, you know, it's like there's evidence of a lot of female comedians he did appreciate. And it's kind of too bad that he couldn't put two and two together in that sense. Though also it's funny to hear Jerry Lewis say the words comic book guy's ass. Yeah. I don't expect to hear Jerry Lewis say these words. Did they explain to him these lines as they were feeding them to him? You know, I think it was an excuse to have him do another line with Hank Azaria character. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think that's what helped, yeah.

I'm sure Hank explained it, who comic book guy was. And Jerry Lewis respected him enough to listen, I would bet. So we then cut to Sweden. A fully nude woman directing traffic which is shocking to see every time but i think another thing in the culture war then of like oh other european countries are so much more advanced than america i think aaron sorkin had like eight different characters in his show repeat the same line like uh sweden like they'd always use sweden as an example of

that's a place with white people that does good stuff. I like how hard that this episode of The Simpsons leans in on the stereotype. I like a stereotype like that if it's just like, you know, to the point of absurdity. I'm just shocked anytime they draw like a non, well, it is comedic nudity, but it is an attractive woman who's naked.

It's not Homer's butt. That's even rarer in the show. And we head into the presentation of the Nobel Prize ceremony. And I want to note that on the character model sheet, they also have in Act 2 Walt Disney in the cryo chamber drawn in. And I don't know when they would have used it because it's not in this episode at all but i assume joke cut before animation sadly this is another one where the script is not out there for me to catalog for as much as uh jennifer garner was the starlet of the moment i do like her interplay with this real life nobel prize winner how he has no time to do any bits the second joke with them is so funny i think it should have been the act break.

Yeah, but I get that they're like, well, if we got another line out of Jerry Lewis, let's use that. But yeah, you're right. I Disagree is a perfect act break. Yeah, and to show you where Jennifer Garner was in 2003 when they put her in this, Alias was going strong.

She had just been in Daredevil that February, playing Elektra, and she had hosted Saturday Night Live that week with musical guest Beck. The sexy star of Alias, you said, not Felicity. Okay. Bit of a time capsule in her persona, because I feel like in more recent years, she's become a sort of, you know, you often see her on the cover of magazines that are like targeting, you know, people in the Midwest. You know, she's become very much like a wholesome, I don't want to say conservative, a suburban kind of icon. You know

what I mean? Yeah. You know, I feel like she is on the verge of reuniting with Ben Affleck. I've been seeing the news stories. I want to point out that I was correct about the J-Lo thing. I knew it wouldn't work out. You don't get back together with your ex, but I think he's going to do it again. Ben Affleck will not surprise us. I'm sad. i was all in on the new benefur i was sad to see it fall apart you know as an old jersey girl fan from way back well will it be benefur 2 part 2 if garner and affleck get back together though he really did not treat her well again, Garner's got a real resurgence this year after a cameo in a certain Rapscallion's movie this summer. So maybe she's going to be an action star again

and move away from this wholesome suburban mom thing. I don't know. Maybe it did seem like she was trying to be the goop or the Midwest, perhaps. Suburban goop? We have city goop and suburban goop. By the way, I'm just glad we're in the weeds

of this Ben Affleck thing because I just Googled his name just to see what the current updates are on this situation. I'm heavily invested in it. And Page Six reports, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner enjoy family dinner

as exes team up for daughter Violet's college move-in. So there you have it. The gang is back. The daughter who wasn't even born when this Simpsons episode aired is now moving into college. That's amazing, man. So we get Jennifer Garner and Dudley R. Hirschbach, who is the Nobel Prize winner they got. They credit Matt Warburton, the young guy on the team, who's only 46 now, for getting this man who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986. But after a little banter on stage, we then get Jerry Lewis to apologize and do a little of his own banter.

You know, Dr. Hirschbach, our jobs are actually not that different. I disagree. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Professor John Frank. Thank you. This is a tremendous honor. However, I can't help being somewhat disheartened that my father has become a marauding ghoul. Not anymore, son! I'm here to accept the Nobel Prize

for stupid. Can you forgive me? Oh, good glaven, Dad. You've made receiving the Nobel Prize the happiest day of my life. Oh, the hug is good. This is what the Nobel Prize is all about. The science and the love

and that physics we call quantum. Ain't that right, people? What a great crowd. You all have such big hearts and such big brains with large, juicy, dripping with knowledge heads. And so he attacks the crowd. I was shocked on first viewing that, like, this like they talked to Jerry Lewis into parodying something he takes very seriously, which with the MDA telethon. Like this is like it's him going into this serious voice that he would get like right before he break into you'll never walk alone. Yeah, yeah.

He took very seriously, you know, I never walk alone. And I saw like a clip once of somebody trying to make fun of that song to him and he got really upset. It's also funny that physics we call quantum, like it's him saying like that business we call show, like that kind of fancy talk. There's a dig at Halle Berry's acceptance speech. I don't remember her going crazy. I thought she was just just very emotional it wasn't a scene from what i recall that's the kind of topical joke i don't love on these later i say later these season 15 simpsons episodes i've ages like milk yeah that one's a whiff but i do like homer acknowledging the first segment which there should be no continuity but he misses being the star of the first segment that bit of her like going nuts at her acceptance speech, I was thinking this too, because I recently went to the Academy Museum when I visited LA, and it's a really great museum

to see. There's a room just dedicated to the awards, and they are playing important clips on there, and I watched the Halle Berry one in full, and I was like, okay, what do they think was her going nuts? There is a bit in it where they tried to play her off and she's like no no don't play me off I have a lot more I have to say it's because she makes the point of I'm doing this for Dorothy Dandridge and other women she's listing the importance of the moment is never before had an African-American woman won thecar for lead acting like it was a major moment and she won it and she wanted it to represent how big it was and she's getting played off and she cuts them

off and not in like an insane way not like she's screaming at people it's just weird that bart says it's going nuts at an acceptance bart simpson known for rude skateboarding and sexism. He's a bad boy, folks. He's a bad boy. So, yes, he claws his way through the audience. He's ripping out brains. He's revealing things that muffins, you know, muffins are unfairly high in calories. You know, I'd rather just have a donut if I'm going to eat. If I'm going to have 400 calories.

We learned that they came from Sears, which I love. That's cute enough. But Lisa using a calculator to say that it is provably true the second she just types in numbers. That's great. One guy gets his brains ripped out. It's a man playing tuba. It is supposed to be a caricature of David Silverman,

the Simpsons supervising director. And then Marge says a very 2003 line, this is more violent than the Hip Hop Awards, which I do laugh at hearing Julie Kavner say Hip Hop Awards. I laugh at that. Though it does feel worse after the Halle Berry joke. So Halle Berry goes nuts and Hip Hop Awards are violent. These are the jokes you're going for, huh, Simpsons? We get him stopped with a swift kick to the nads. It seems like a sad ending for old Frank, but fortunately it comes together in the end.

Oh, father, you're dying again, but I can bring you back to life, sir. Son, it doesn't take five brains in your head to know that's a bad idea. You saw I'd become a monster and you stopped me like a man. I'm proud of you. And now it's time for me to go to hell. Ow, oo, oo, ow, oy, oy, oo, ow, dead. I disagree. It must be tough to win the Nobel Prize and lose your father on the same day.

Oh, I didn't really lose my father. Thanks to my latest invention, the soul catcher. Let's bring it out and look at it. I may be a soul, but I'm hungry. Can you throw in a little matzah? Maybe a nice piece of fish. Why, of course, father. Allow me to satisfy your

Hebraic desires. That's a good schmendler. Oh, I've waited so long to hear you say that. What does it mean? Is it dirty? It's a great ending for this little segment. I do like the flat reading of Jerry Lewis noises that Jerry is doing,

and I also feel that Hank Azaria, he wants more ad-libbing than any of the other actors. And I feel like, let's bring it out and look at it. I feel like that is a Hank Azaria ad-lib. He's talking about the soul catcher. I love when he's sobbing, he seems to say another Yiddish word, dibbik, at the end of it too.

Like, it's a dibbik. Though, that even he has been so confused by the Yiddish that he's been hearing that even he doesn't know what Shmendela means. Is it dirty? I mean, also, your Hebraic commands, another great line, too. It's such a big thing. I wonder if this should have been the third segment

and the stopwatch the second segment, just to go out on the high of your big guest star. But it is a real animation showcase in Act 3. Okay, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to Election Day. And face it,

between debates, polling releases, even court appearances, it can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Milkey. I'm the host of Start Here,

the daily podcast from ABC News. And every morning, my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand with just enough context so you can listen, get it, and go on with your day. So kickstart your morning. Start smart with Start Here and ABC News because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. So after all of that, it's time for the Simpsons to go back into their tried and true treehouse area, parodying a specific episode of The Twilight Zone. Now, is this a famous episode? Because I have still not seen this one.

In fact, I thought it was a parody of a fairly new movie that was out at the time, Clockstoppers, which is something they bring up on the commentary. It was, I think, winter of 2002 film in very similar premise, directed by Jonathan Frakes, William Riker himself. Yeah, it was one of his big non-Star Trek ones,

though I guess we have the wrong Michael and us host for all this Star Trek talk, I think. Yeah, yeah, unfortunately. I kind of assumed, I'd forgotten what year it came out I kind of assumed this was a reference to click no clicks ripping off the same thing but the episode is from season five it's called a kind of stopwatch which I gotta say Serling you know you could do a little better with the title very placeholder to me but yes it's a rod serling written episode though it's a teleplay he wrote adapting a story by michael d rosenthal it's a clever idea but essentially the way the stopwatch works in the episode is a man has the ability to make actors stand still a few actors stand still

or hit pause on stock footage those are the two things that this stopwatch can do. It's a fun one, though also too, spoilers for that episode. The twist is that the guy who gets the stopwatch is a motor mouth who is constantly talking to everybody and is stealing their attention. He talks so much, he annoys everybody out of a bar. Everybody's like, oh, I'm out of here. Shut up, loser. He gets stuck in between seconds when the watch breaks. And Serling basically says, a man who wanted to talk to everybody has no one to talk to. He's all alone, trapped between seconds. It's like, that's it?

That's not breaking your glasses with a bunch of books around you, level of Irie. The only reason I rewatched it recently, before this year was because i re-watched all of community over the covet break for my husband who had never seen community before and in the show community there is an old man that everybody does their old man jokes to named leonard and the actor is richard erdman who has been acting in hollywood since like he was friends with sal mineo and james dean like he's been acting in hollywood like, he was friends with Sal Mineo and James Dean. Like, he's been acting in Hollywood since the 50s. He is the lead of that Twilight Zone episode.

50 years before he is on Community, he is on that. And he was in hundreds of other TV shows and movies. Richard Erdman had an amazing career that ended with Community. He passed away at 93 back in 2019. I was going to say, he won't be returning for the film unless they recreate him with cgi and they might well you know especially with dade harman is invested in crypto as well i could imagine he's invested in ai as well could be but that's where they're pulling from but in this case bart gets his hands on a stopwatch that stops time which

also was the plot of the third Futurama finale, the episode called Meanwhile. I haven't seen that one yet, but we will in about, I don't know, three or four years for the podcast. Be there before we know it. I think it's a good stock premise. I think it's a good clothesline for some funny jokes.

Though it's something they needed to have live action. They needed special effects to catch up with their ability to do it. Finally, they did when it was time for Click. Yeah, a lot of really great sight gags in this episode that go by very, very quickly. It seemed like this took a lot of work, too. Oh, yeah, the artists definitely talk about

what a pain it was to have, like, freeze-frame jokes in this. First, they come across it while reading some old comic books. Oh, baby, did I find something to throw out today? If you like space in the attic, are you going to be happy? Cool, comics from the 70s. Superman vs. Patty Hearst.

Evil Knievel Jumps the Jackson 5. Batman and Rhoda. Check out these ads. Let's see, x-ray gum. Cool. Milhouse, do you have your change purse? Always. Here you go, son. To stop time, click watch. Wow, she looks like a background character in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon To restart time, click watch again What the? Lisa, that's a filthy habit

Boy, I wouldn't want to be a Hanna-Barbera cartoon right now after that drubbing I like those psych gags though You know, Superman vs. Patty Hearst, Batman and Rhoda Boy, I wouldn't want to be a Hanna-Barbera cartoon right now after that drubbing. I like those psych gags, though. You know, Superman versus Patty Hearst, Batman and Rhoda. I don't know. I thought that was funny. Yeah, Batman and Rhoda is no less ridiculous than the comic that Will showed us earlier. Very true.

Batman and Jerry Lewis. Yeah, that could easily have been a psych gag. Who did David Letterman help? The Avengers, the Fantastic Four. Yes, he helped the Avengers. And the Avengers met the 78 cast of snl i want to say definitely yeah it's one of those classic covers i heard bobby moynihan tell this story now i'm going to sound like a jerry lewis story here i heard bobby moynihan tell a funny story of that the snl cast meets spider-man and the avengers cover up on his office wall at Saturday Night Live.

And he said that Megan Fox came in there and during her week hosting incorrectly identified the issue number and the writers. And that's how she revealed that she is a actual real comic fan, Megan Fox is, which she dreamed of playing April O'Neil in Turtles because she loved Eastman and Laird, the original comics. So don't call Megangan fox a fake geek girl i'm happy to hear that when you began that story i thought it was going to end with her coming in and just being like appalled by this incredibly like nerdy thing on the wall but no destroying it in front of a crying bobby moynihan yeah i think they're pulling same two from the superman versus muhammad ali stunt comic of the 70s as well so all these crossovers they're fun and i think it sets up oh yeah you'd find these

ads in the back of old comics not then current comic books that was another reason i really wanted to watch artists and models it is such a perfect parody of the fear-mongering towards violent comics in the mid 50s like they They have literally a panel on TV about how scary the comic books are. Jerry Lewis is the simpleton whose mind has been destroyed by comics that they're having on stage. How do comics melt your brain? He's like, well, it taught me how to clean brass knuckles. Yeah, yeah.

If you're a big-time comic fan, it's great to see all these. Basically, he starts working for EC Comics while also falling in love with Bat Lady. He was ahead of his time of a person being obsessed with a cartoon woman more than a living woman. I saw one of these old comic book ads posted without context on Twitter the other day. It was just one cut-out ad that said, Adorable Pet Monkey, $6.95. And it was just a little cutout ad that said adorable pet monkey 695 and it was just a little capuchin monkey or whatever sitting in someone's palm and i just wondered what did you get when you sent away not a monkey corpse i hope it was probably like some sort of well

technically it's a monkey the sea monkeys are one thing but an actual an ad that promises a living monkey that sounds what did you get out of that they'd also sell you like a thousand army men on the back of it too though i think this shows you how long the show's been on in season one bart gets his spy camera by ordering away in a similar thing but they treat it as a current comic book now to do the joke it has to be old comic books out of the attic that bart could do this send away on millhouse still has his change purse he mentioned it in large marge as well though of course they're stealing this joke from kirk van houten who said yeah i have a change purse that's right a purse in millhouse divided they're coming down on change purses i don't think they've caught on in the past

21 years though well it's where you guys both you guys keep all of your loonies and toonies, right? No. Oh yeah. You got it. You got it. If I can have a little beef with American currency right now, I think it's about time you guys abolished your penny because we did that a long time ago and it makes your wallet so much lighter, not accumulating these worthless one cent coins. It feels close to dead around here. I can't remember the last time I held a penny or was given one back. But also, I think I've been entirely cashless in stores since COVID. Since I moved to Canada, I have not ever spent paper money on anything. I got some out of the bank just in case, but I when I go to Canada, I'll finally get to hold some of that fun Canadian money. I didn't need to get a dollar the entire time I was there. Everything was plastic. Well, you missed out.

The toonie is magical. It's good, too, because otherwise we would have had to see King Charles on the $20 bill every day. But maybe that won't even happen anymore because we don't have cash money anymore. I feel like they're gambling that he's not gonna live long he's not gonna outlive the minting process who are we kidding also credit to the animators they put that red button on the watch every shot like it's there for the payoff at the end of the segment but it's there the entire scene they could have gotten away with just adding it for that last shot but they're playing fair and animating it and every time you see that stopwatch they then go through a few more jokes about what they would do stopping time what an innocent child

would do with it which is descend the slacks of their principal in front of every the writers do point out that bart and millhouse are children so nothing dirty happens with the stopwatch. They mention if you want to read like a fiction book about a time stop guy who would do all the horrible things an adult would do with this they name some book for that. On that same fanfic site you were on Bob I'm sure we could find an endless

number of time stop articles. Articles yes. Stories. No I like articles because it makes it sound like you're learning something. This also is where there's the other deleted scene from the episode, which is after they de-pants Skinner, we then go to Lovejoy giving his sermon. And the Lord said unto Moab. Where the heck am I?

Someone must have put a hippie pill in my Rob Roy. Lord said unto my web. Where the heck am I? Someone must have put a hippie pill in my Rob Roy. That's good ad-libbing. So Krusty teleports in to replace him, which Aljeet on the commentary for the deleted scene says he thinks they cut it because hippie pills seemed too old fashioned of a joke. By the way, that thing he says, that's good. Is that a Johnny Carson reference? Yeah. I remember Jon Stewart would do it all the time. But did that come from Carson?

Yeah, I believe that's his Art Fern character. And if you didn't get enough old timey comedy with Jerry Lewis, you get a Johnny Carson character impression in this as well. Well, I guess you didn't. But with the DVD, you do. Right. We've been on Art Fern watch watch they've been sticking it in it was in season 14 several times wasn't it yeah you'll hear like that's good blank or you are correct sir like what one of those references right they really love art fern well johnny carson isn't dead yet when this episode comes out but he

hadn't been on tv in about 11 years when this aired so then we cut to homer who is trying to eat donuts and it's very visual but it is very funny laid out perfectly and it's every time he's about to eat them he can't even kill himself and then he's just left nude to be laughed at by nelson who is then also they replace a suicide knife with a banana and he's distraught that he can't cut into his own intestines as he is saying doe he is then sees he's naked and is left clutching his genitals and every time when they teleport something in they stop time to move nelson like from wherever he was and drop him so they carried him across town conceivably just for that but then the kids get found out because after we go to the town meeting where credit to the writers they must have stayed up late they found a sign gag that could be changed

three times into three different joke prank titles this is one of those where i feel like there was an internet device use some sort of internet program that helped them because they were complaining in the past they didn't have that and they do use them now whenever they need to do an anagram joke you know man i cheapens it some but yet they would have been writing this in 2002 they would have had it by then quimby while he's talking he is getting changed in costumes over and over again he's like pants were pulled down routinely humiliated but this is when he reveals there's ultraviolet powder and they can finally track who's doing it. And I love that Homer says it

was those guys pointing at his own son. And the rest of the town is furious. People, Springfield is in crisis. Fingers have been shoved up noses. Pants have been pulled down. And mayors have been repeatedly

humiliated. Damn it! I thought our mysterious pranksters might be here tonight, so I covered the meeting hall with ultraviolet powder. Behold the perpetrators! It was those guys! Um, let us kill them before learning of the magical secret which they possess

it's always good when mel gets to pronounce those things maybe figure out how they're doing this instead of killing him but they'd rather just kill him they stop time but as they're running they break the watch this is the end of the Twilight Zone. The man is just trapped in seconds forever, or time will never begin again in the real world. And so he's just going to go insane and I would guess kill himself eventually. Yeah, I really love the very dark jokes in this one. One of my favorites is the fact that a bullet was about to penetrate Bart's skull,

fired by Chief Wiggum. They stop time just in time, or else his head would have just been vaporized by an adult. It's great. Wiggum was going for the kill there. Another thing I like, I love how Milhouse twice says, like, uh, yeah, but you tell me. He won't admit he doesn't know what's going on.

Like, that's a good skill to have as a podcaster, I've learned, too. Just like, oh, yeah, we'll tell everybody about Jerry Lewis. We all know this, too. But please. I also love Milhouse's little dance. Like I like is like lick his fingers, spin around like it's a fun dorky dance. Milhouse comes off especially dorky in this whole episode, don't you think? There was the earlier reference to kill Milhouse.

We know nothing's happening in his life. In this one, he's like especially sad honestly he's lucky that bart invited him along on the time stop adventures and didn't leave millhouse stranded there forever in one of those time stoppages it is a theme that when he and bart get a lot of freedom or power millhouse wants to do something lame like use fabric softener or go crazy broadway style in this case get ahead in their reading, which I love too, though. If I had time stopping abilities, maybe I would try to get ahead in my podcast research as well.

I'd be tempted. Will, if you could time stop, you could watch all of the newsroom and be ready to record it right then. If I had time stopping abilities, that's not how I would use it. I definitely find more productive and perhaps even enjoyable uses for my newfound time. Well, more newsroom for me than in the time stopper. If I stopped time, I would just rob a bank and then be good forever.

Like, well, boy, how are you going to, I guess I can track it pretty good now. Boy, I'd have to steal gold, I suppose, or diamonds, things that can't be as easily. Yeah, the modern security state makes time stopping just a non starter, I think. I think so, too. I still feel that time stopping is like a great advantage to have. You know, even if they did catch you robbing a bank, I think you could use time stopping to manipulate your way out of arrest. So they are now trapped after it is broken, but they decide to go around the world stealing stuff

and it becomes hollow after a while. I do love how they collect all their families together. They're trapped in the middle of running after them. Also, Homer's head keeps falling off, which should mean he's dead when they time. I love that. That was really funny. It's so grisly. They're somehow able to collect Oscar de la Hoya while he's presenting a novelty check to the United Way. Can they drive cars in this time stoppage or is it just walking around? There's questions unanswered here. It feels like machines still function.

I want to say. Definitely. still function i want to say definitely i've seen if we're following the rules of that twilight zone episode if he touches something it moves when he moves it like he moves a cart and it moves with him or he can like eat something and it moves so he affects the things in movement there's not hard science in it i'm going by flash rules and i mean the Flash from the comics and how he would move in between seconds, but physics would still have to correspond to it. I think he'd get his friend Batman to help him out, right? Well, we know Superman is not faster than the Flash, despite what the monorail episode would have you believe. I think I explained that very well in that episode but oscar de la jolla a championship boxer in case you didn't know he was six weeks removed from a controversial split decision loss to shane mosley if you're a

fan of de la jolla's career though he would go on to go where the real money is in boxing in promotion he's not one of those tragic stories of a boxer who has to keep fighting into his 50s or 60s instead just to get some money he He became management, basically, so he's doing pretty good. Yeah, I looked up a recent story about him. What is he up to? Yesterday, Daily Mail says, Boxing icon Oscar De La Hoya posts bizarre sexual boogie video wearing a thong with his girlfriend.

So just fun half-naked dancing. They both have great bodies. I say let's go for it. Why not? Maybe he's just seeing that Britney Spears has been posting weird naked videos lately, and he wants to get in on the trend. That's got to be it. Yeah.

Next to him is the Pope, who Bart is giving a wedgie. Which Pope is this, by the way? It doesn't look like John Paul II. They were afraid he was going to die, so they just made it a nondescript dark-haired pope they had to go vague pope though he died 18 months after this and you know what he stayed pope until he was dead i am still mad that we have a retired pope recently that nazi who became a retired pope if you sign up for pope i don't care if you get old and tired you die as pope well and yes on the record that he had i think think there's the wisdom out, you know,

just pedophilia becoming an epidemic with absolutely no one at the wheel. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, his presence in the Hitler youth is the least problematic thing about that Pope. Yes. I mean, that was forced upon him, the pedophilia and stuff. He could have intervened in some way. And I say he deserves to slowly die in

the public eye not getting to retire to die in peace somewhere after all the pedophilia he proved of in any case it's made clear that bart and millhouse did not kill pope john paul ii yes with this wedgie merely a wedgie and i also love the joke that kirk and luan are forced back together by being tied together with like electric cords that's great yeah they tip over though in just a couple of years Al Jean's getting his wish of putting them back together for real which again I do not like I don't like Kirk and Luann together again Kirk needs to be a miserable divorced man the rest of his life I think Apu just inherited all of the bad relationship jokes after that point right I mean look we're on season 15 here these are all non-canonical episodes. I think

we all understand that. It's great that you're doing them, but this is not the real Simpsons anymore. This is just putting your action figures together in odd new configurations. Will believes in one of the Homer dies theories. He dies in, I don't know, season 10. I do. This is all a death dream. So they decide they're going to fix this watch to unstuck from time hopefully to make it happen they say it'll be real quick and then cut to 15 years later which i like that choice because it basically makes the age bart 25 which is what he would be in 2003 if he was 10 in 1988 around when they debuted.

So I like that Bart has aged naturally to basically be the age. I was 21 when I watched this episode. So seeing a 25 year old Bart, it was like looking in a mirror. I thought it was the funniest joke on the whole half hour. I thought it was very nicely timed. And then, you know,

when it cuts to them 15 years later and Milhouse says, I work better in a structured environment. I don't know. I thought that was funny. Well, much like Bart, when I was 21, I was living in my childhood bedroom as well. Fewer Van Goghs on the wall in yours. yeah i love that i work better in a structured environment it does seem to speak to the school fears at the time of kids of like you know hollywood fears of kids not being taught right in schools but i also like his addiction to gummy worms that he's been eating and poor millhouse he's gone bald by 25 like he's as bald as his father by 25 that's rough but they figure out not only are they going to unfreeze time, but also they're going to frame Martin for it.

And it is a great, horribly mean joke that they unpause time and Martin is beaten to death in front of them as they casually whistle away. Dios mio, this kid is fun to hit. Oscar de la Hoya with one line. It's great. I do like how Martin is murdered.

I mean, it's very cruel, but this is where the darkest, cruelest jokes go. The Treehouse of Horrors. cartoon would do that and that could have been the funny ending too of martin being beaten to death but they decided they wanted a bunch of wacky visual gags to end it which on the commentary they admit this is a little too silly and they were getting too silly for ending but also it doesn't it feel like they're just ripping off the ending of the gas that turns people inside out when bart wakes up from his dream in that treehouse. Yeah, yeah. It's even in Bart's bedroom. Just kind of going for a non sequitur psychic, although I know one of these made little Henry Gilbert very happy. Yes, it's true.

So let's hear a little of that happy ending here. Dios mio, this kid is fun to hit. Hmm, why is Bart so tall and shaggy? Just one of life's mysteries. Like, why is my nose jammed full of army men? Oh, come on, don't you get it? Bart stopped time with his magic stopwatch. Jealous much?

Why can't I tinker with the fabric of existence? Let the baby have her bottle. Huh. What happens if I press this button? Sorry, sorry, sorry! Okay, that's good stop there and with rock around the clock it's fun tend to halloween episode rock around the clock which this gives me reason to bring up that i recently re-watched for the first time in many years american graffiti because i got the 4k of it i forgot that that is like the opening credit song because that makes it even more egregious that happy days like made that their opening theme song originally

happy days already is such a pure ripoff of american graffiti down to a lot of the cast but that they stole the theme song of rock around the Clock. Like, that's too much. We have used the term rip off so much in this episode. I think litigation is pending for all of these cases now. Well, you know, back then there wasn't any home video. So people just saw Happy Days. Sorry, they saw American Graffiti and they forgot about it. And then they turned on their TV one day and were just vaguely reminded.

I don't know, I'm talking out of my ass. This is not true at all. It was many years into me checking out Happy Days reruns before I heard it with Rock Around the Clock instead of, you know, they replaced it with the later Happy Days theme where they didn't want to pay for Rock Around the Clock anymore. Like Sunday, Monday, Happy Days, Tuesday, that one. I've never seen Happy Days. I've never seen a single second of it. I've seen Fonz jump the shark. That's the only thing I've seen from it.

Just watch the Weezer music video for Buddy Holly and you're good. I think that's it. That's all you got to see. And Henry, Fantastic Four, Psych Gag. Absolutely. That made me so happy to see it. I love those guys in the Fantastic Four. Though now, soon now they're going to star in an MCU movie and they're not going to feel special to me anymore.

Though they already were the stars of two three movies so it's not like they're not famous yeah no though if I have to critique it's down to the nerdiest level I would say that if Bart is going to prank Homer and Homer is the thing then Bart should be the human torch who much more often pranks the thing as opposed to Reed Richards' Mr. Fantastic. I hope someone got fired for that one. Also, it's just fun to see a bunch of like quickie design psych gags like the bobbleheads there. I miss when bobbleheads were bigger than Funko Pops. I miss those days.

Yeah, it was a very brief bubble. The Funko bubble is still inflating 10 years later did you see the recent viral post of people showing a line of freaks who stalked some celebrity at the airport to line up at the airport to make them sign their funko pops oh i didn't know it was a funko pop signature line i thought it was just sign anything any famous person it apparently was specifically for funko pops this one but yeah as a follower of pro wrestlers i know that pro wrestlers are among the most stocked at airports who like literally people find out like okay the show is tonight so he's going to be at this airport tonight i'm buying the cheapest plane ticket so i can meet them at

the gate and bring in pallets of things to sign and the pro wrestlers are going to be nice and not call me like an asshole and just dutifully sign each thing for eBay or for reselling these are not for fans also speaking of things to sign TV guide covers they have the TV guide cover thing which is actually pulled from a real thing. In the year 2000, The Simpsons did an official tie-in with TV Guide. 24 covers of The Simpsons characters with faces of the characters. None of the family. It's all of the weird side. Well, not weird.

Mr. Burns is not a weird side character. But the point is, it's not the family on the covers. I think I might have grabbed one of these just because of the sheer novelty value. But, yeah, I'm looking at an image of all of them laid out. If you got $400 set aside, Bobby, you can get the full set from a couple memorabilia places I saw online. And I can learn about the 2000 fall season. The all-important. Will, I would guess you seem like you could have been a TV Guide kid, but did you have a TV Guide available to you then? In the Toronto Star newspaper,

it had its own TV Guide called Star Week, which I think was even better than the regular TV Guide. But the grocery store checkout aisles, yes, they were stocked with TV Guide, but it would have been a Canadian branded or a Canadian version of the TV Guide brand. It would have had our channels and our Canadian content. You can also find on ebay many simpsons bobbleheads but also the things bobblehead is a specific brand so you can also find the knockoffs of like playmates boblers or wobblers or the head jigglers like they the head jigglers well i'm saying the heads jiggle would be like the description of the things that are not really bobbleheads, but are oversized heads that move.

Because bobblehead does charge a lot if you're going to use the specific branding of bobblehead. And of course, Bobbleheads the movie came out during the pandemic, and we all saw it. I watched the trailer for that. It's one of the worst looking things I've ever seen. Wait. It's terrible. Wait, is that true? Is that actually a movie? I completely missed that. It's a real movie. trailer for that it's one of the worst looking things i ever seen wait it's terrible wait is that true is that actually a movie i completely missed that it's a real movie they waited 20

years after the bobblehead phenomenon and let's say 18 years and when you watch the trailer you realize oh all of the jokes are about how their heads bob uncontrollably that's all they can do with the premise so every joke of that variety is in the trailer i can't imagine it goes any further than that but i think it's one of the original lion king directors is behind it or something like that something like that this came up in our previous research of like how far someone had fallen it was that they worked on the bobbleheads movie yes oh director of beauty and the beast that's it man that's sad that's sad not trialsdale but wise wow yep i think, one of the cast members in it is the actress who plays Kimiko from The Boys.

I forget her name. But it's like, wait, you cast as your voice actor the woman who doesn't speak in her role on The Boys? Like a person who's not known for their voice to be your celebrity voice in your movie? Hey, Cher's in it. Jennifer Coolidge is doing some stuff in the bobbleheads film we'll never cover this but you know seek it out on your own enjoy it on your own don't tell us about it please we end with a hula hoop gag that's where that's where we end which hey good animation on the hula hoops and i also like that al gene made his name al

halloween names are back Jean because the Halloween names are indeed back we come to the end of another treehouse a November treehouse and I like they get back to basics with a Twilight Zone parody I don't love that they rip off Family Guy unknowingly but also Jerry Lewis has a lot of fun and I'm happy for Hank Azaria that he had such a good time doing it with him and you know what? It was a more brutal treehouse. I like this more than I think the previous year's treehouse. I'm going to say that.

Yeah, I like this more than I remember liking it. I love all the dark jokes. I like the variety between all the segments. And I appreciate we're over the 9-11. Can we do violent comedy again? Scare. And now we're back to the scarier, gorier tree houses that I always like. Will, any thoughts on this one?

Final thoughts. Middling episode overall, but there's a lot of stuff that happens in it. A lot of jokes and a decent number of them hit. So, you know, a solid three stars out of five. And as far as Jerry Lewis's, you know, work and what he was doing in this century, how would you rate it amongst his work in this century? In this century? Gosh, honestly, pretty high. I mean, I'm struggling to even think of audiovisual media that he was associated with in this century, to be honest. I mean, in this century, his greatest work was, yeah, those Q&As and casino appearances he would do where he would

just abuse his audience. A real life Neil Hamburger. After that, sure, this is upper tier late Lewis. Thank you once again to Will Sloan for being on the show. Will, please let us know more about Michael and Us, your podcast, where you cover movies about politics, but also Studio 60 on the Sunset Script. You let us know what John Cleese has been up to lately. That's a service your podcast does as well. Yeah, that's one of the subjects I'm obsessed with.

John Cleese has a weird talk show on a right-wing British news channel, although he himself is more of a centrist. Well, I feel like that's one of what John Cleese's lines would be of like, me being a centrist now makes me white ring or whatever. He'd probably say that. He has in every way become the major from Fawlty Towers.

I think you made the great reference to how he knows about comedy just looking at what he's done the last 30 years of his career.

He knows comedy. Michael and I, you guys have been doing great stuff on there, especially like you've had a real boost you've been saying from your Studio 60 coverage.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's been a lot of fun. We're wrapping that up soon. And yeah, I don't know what we're going to do next. Those characters have been with me for so long.

You know, it feels like losing a limb saying goodbye to them. And you guys are supported on Patreon just like us, too. You got a ton of exclusives on there. It's a weekly one, right?

That's right. Two episodes a week. One of them's free. One of them's for subscribers. And yeah, the hamster wheel keeps me busy, as I'm sure it does for you too. And hey, Will, if you miss Matt and Danny and all the rest, I'll personally curate the best Studio 60 fan fiction that you can cover on your podcast.

If you really want more material. That might be helpful. But I can look into that on my own as well. But thank you so much again, Will. Yes, thank you, Will. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure, fellas. But as for us, if you want to check out more of what we do and get these podcasts one week at a time

and ad free please go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and sign up at the five dollar level. If you do you get all the Patreon content we've made for the past seven plus years that includes things like Talking Futurama, Talking of the Hill, Batman the Animated Series, Talking Mission Hill and Talking Critic and that five bucks

a month also gets you new episodes every month of both talking futurama and talk king of the hill it's all happening at the five dollar level only at patreon.com slash talking simpsons and there is a ten dollar level as well when you sign up for that you can access all the five dollar stuff naturally but then you can also access one mega long podcast once a month only for patrons of that level or higher and what is that henry bob's talking about the what a cartoon movie podcast where you cover an animated featured film super in-depth just like we do a simpsons episode from halloween and it's ad free as well it's more like three podcasts you get at once not just one because it's often six hours long like we have been doing this summer we just wrapped up our summer of Disney Renaissance, where we covered the last three

of the Disney Renaissance films we hadn't covered yet, Mulan, Pocahontas, and Tarzan. And you can hear all of them in our entire back catalog if you join at that $10 level at patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. We've covered tons of Disney films, the classic and 90s. We've covered all of the Toy Story movies

and other Pixar films. We've covered Space Jam. We've covered all of the Toy Story movies and other Pixar films. We've covered Space Jam. We've even done our longest podcast ever, six and a half hours, about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And anime too, a lot of Studio Ghibli films. See it all for yourself and all the other ad-free awesome stuff we do at patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. And as for me, I've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. And my other podcast is called Retro Knots. That's a classic gaming podcast all about old video games. You can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash retro knots and sign up there for two full length bonus episodes every month. And Henry, how about you?

You can follow me on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G, also Blue Sky and I'm Talking Henry on Instagram. And if you're following me and Bob in those places, be sure to follow at Talk Simpsons Pod in all of those platforms too, because at Talk Simpsons Pod keeps you up to date whenever there is new stuff out on the Patreon, whenever we have live shows we're doing, whenever we have announcements of new podcasts you stay in the loop if you follow at talk simpsons pod on social media and if you want a list of all of our previously released free podcasts head over to talking simpsons.com thanks so much for listening folks we'll see you again next time for season five's cape fear and we'll see you then. I am death.

Death? We don't want any. I have come for Bart Simpson. Bart, run like the wind! Mom, it's wind. Well, I've only read it in books.