Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Weekend At Burnsie's With Mike Hanford

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

This week's ep is all about America's favorite jam band, so we welcome back comedian/writer/Phish fan Mike Hanford from the band/podcast The Sloppy Boys! As Homer gets prescription pot after a crow attack, he becomes a very era-appropriate stoner, which leads to him meeting Phish and puppeting Mr. Burns' corpse. So feel free to grab your own Texas THC (where legal) as we giggle nervously with this week's podcast! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the new official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

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So become a patron and join us through the rest of 2022 for another great miniseries. Same bat day, same bat podcast feed. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast where fingers fing. I'm your host, the brain moron, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who is here with me today, as always? It's Henry Gilbert, and the best tonic is chronic. And who do we have on the line, our special guest for today?

Who do you take me for, Lorenzo De Medici? It's me, Mike Hanford. And this week's episode is Weekend at Burnsy's. Damn old garbage. This guy's always on. Oh, you too.

This week's podcast originally aired on April 7th, 2002. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history oh my god happy 13 days until 420 bob van wilder debuts to little success at the box office though it does better than the mr show movie that also debuted run ronnie run in theaters at the same time and meanwhile in japan a, a favorite of mine, the anime Azumanga Daioh debuts. Wow.

Oh, and also the film Shark Tale is announced years ahead of time. Though in this original version is called Shark Slayer. And James Gandolfini, I believe, is supposed to be the Jack Black role in the original version of it. How could they make us wait so long? That's cruel. But yeah, that Van Wilder, that was definitely an HBO favorite at the time. I mean, or no, it was like one of those unrated DVDs that your friend would have. Yeah, with the blank edition, one of those releases.

I remember one of the editions was like Raj's edition, wasn't it? Or did he have his own movie? Yeah, that's right. Raj had his own sequel. I thought this was a success because they had the Van Wilder 2, The Rise of, is it Raj or Taj? Is it Raj? Oh, Rise of Taj, sorry.

And this movie gave us Ryan Reynolds? Is that what's going on here? Well, I mean, he was already around. Yeah, in Vancouver. It gave him maybe a starring vehicle. I love the Sloppy Boys, not to already begin complimenting our guests, but on the Sloppy Boys...

No, no, let's maybe make that a theme throughout the whole episode. On the Sloppy Boys podcast, especially behind the paywall, I like hearing the Ryan Reynolds opinions on those. Those are insane. Yeah, there's some of us who had, my opinion is in fine with him, and he's the lead of one of my, my only favorite Marvel franchise,

the Deadpool guy. I don't know much about the Marvel world, but yeah, there's some people on the podcast who really have a, take a hard line on that guy. And weren't we all waiting for the Run, Ronnie Run movie? Yes. I mean, it goes without saying, Mike Hanford, a friend of Bob Odenkirk. Yes.

And I know he had a not good time with that whole experience. Right. What was the, I mean, he didn't talk to me about it, but what was the deal there? They kind of took the editing away from him? Yeah, I know this well because I just listened to the audio version of his memoir, Bob Odenkirk's memoir, which is really good, and the birthday boys get a lot of nice compliments in there. Oh, good. Does he read it? Yes, he reads it, yeah. But yeah, they've gone into it in other places too but

pretty much the the sense i got from it was that they worked a ton with the director of the movie troy miller on the tv show but then when they made the movie troy miller i believe had final cuts and there were disagreements with bob and david over what the final cut would be and eventually he seemingly overruled them and put out the movie as he wanted it which bob and david do and i think most of the other people who wrote on it like scott ackerman are not fans of and are not don't have nice things to say about yeah you would think that bob and david being what they are now could could get that out of you know someone's hands and read re-edit it yeah at this point that would take a lot of work and who knows if they have time for that but that would be a fun thing to see yeah with all the power they got they uh though man who i guess it was a new line

release which would mean warner owns it now i i don't know okay i i honestly that is so funny thinking to like if you've got a movie happening it you do not need to write on a contract in a piece of paper like this one guy is going to make all the last edits yeah it's so funny to think about that and it's it's crazy to think that that was in their agreement of like and it's troy miller not bob and david or something who were the showrunners of their show yeah yeah right right yeah i mean this movie came out as i was getting into mr show buying the first dvds but i don't even know if it went to theaters. I don't even know if it was a direct-to-DVD thing eventually.

I feel like it was a festival-type thing. Yeah, you're right. I think it debuted at Cannes. I remember in the run-up to it, any time in between the last season and the release of the movie, when Bob and David would be on Conan or something, Bob and or David, I would just be like, what's going on with this movie? Tell me of the movie when bob and david would like be on like conan or something bob and or david i would just be like what's going on with this movie tell me about the movie and they would yeah they would mainly just joke about it as like i i remember really liking it but now knowing that it could have been something different i think i was more just like oh my god a mr show movie i'm on board whatever they want to do i i just remember the funny parts from it and haven't i haven't watched the whole thing again since the first time i watched it but i do remember jack black's uh very funny

song i will not repeat on this podcast it's far too profound but uh but anyway yes that so that's what happened when this episode released in April of 2002. Yeah. But yes, joining us today is Mike Hanford of the Sloppy Boys. He was last with us for Dead Putting Society. Welcome back to the show, Mike. Hello. Yes, that was an early, that was a season two episode, or season one, season two.

Season two, yes. A lot slower paced and less risque than this one. Oh my gosh. This is season what, 13? 13, yeah gosh. This is season, what, 13? 13, yeah. I've got it up here. 13, wow. You got Disney Plus at the ready. Disney Plus at the ready.

I like to have it going while we're talking. So I said, oh, this part. I've got to tell you about this part. And Mike, how is it going in the world of musician slash cocktail podcaster? That world is always burgeoning it's fantastic you know you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a cocktail podcast or a comedy musician these days no i think it's a pretty i think it's a pretty select group it's pretty small but it's going well it's a lot of fun you guys, I've been loving what you guys have been doing. I was just listening to your best Christmas aspect episode.

Thank you. That's behind the paywall. So you're a true slot bet. Yes, that was Jeff Dutton's idea. We wanted to talk about Christmas stuff as we're in December. And he said, he just texted us, how about this best Christmas aspect? And we both, Tim and I laughed at it. And we said, okay, great, let's do that. And there's a lot of talk on the episode saying, you know, the special feeling you get, that's my favorite aspect.

Just these obscure words and thoughts. But of course, Mike is here, A, because he's very funny, and we respect that. But B, he is a big Phish fan, and I don't know the name for fish fans. Fishheads? What's the... Fishheads, sure. You can have fishheads. You can have wooks.

Those are a different characteristic of a fish fan. Actually, I'm going to look up what an actual wook is. I think it's like a big, hairy-type fish fan, but what do I know? Oh, I see. It's like the bears of the fish community, I guess then. Maybe. Oh, here we go define wook uh oh geez i'm reading a huge to me wook is the hairy dude with no shirt usually gene overalls who usually hail from kentucky or somewhere down so this is from like fish.net oh i see man well it's one of those things you know one when you see one but

yeah i think fish head is the term i guess well and mike as i understand it you you grew up a fish fam like was it your brother that got you into it yes my brother got me into it a very i was i was in sixth grade when i started listening to him so i've been to a bunch of shows i've i know people who like him i know people who do not like them. A running series of events on the Sloppy Boys podcast is you trying to convince your co-host to come to the New Year's show. I think, yeah, I think Tim is going to be there. Oh, boy. But Jeff, for the first time ever in his life, is spending Christmas in L.A. His family's coming out there, so he's not coming in.

But we still like to act as if he will be there right next to us. So how many times have you, just to that Madison Square Garden New Year's show, how many times have you been then? Just to that one,

I've been once to the New Year's show, but they always do four shows either leading up to New Year's or three on the front end and then one on the first. I've been to one actual New Year's show and then three total of that run, and it's very fun. I'm going to go again this year.

And, Mike, I have to assume you're going to at Stone Cold Sober, right? Mm-hmm. As in this episode. That's the only way to listen to that band. Fish does not recommend drug use or endorse it in any way. Unless it's medical. Right, right, right.

You have to have the prescription with you. I have a bottle of water. I have a small Arrowhead water with me. That, right, right. You have to have the prescription with you. I have a bottle of water. I have a small arrowhead water with me. That's all I need. I sit down in my seat. Even before the encore, I leave before the encore. I'm glad Mike is here. Beat the foot traffic.

I have no fish experience. Thank you. I have no fish prejudice either. And I think it's because between the ages of 14 and 16, I think that's when all of your musical tastes cement because your brain is the most reactive to music. I think there's some science to back that up. I think you're right. Jam bands did not find me in that time.

Yeah, where are you coming from? I was really into New Wave stuff and Weezer and the non-grungy alternative bands of that era. So they're pretty divorced from Fish. I more meant where, that's good to know, but I more meant what, where are you, what part of the country? Oh, Northeast Ohio. Okay.

Yeah, I don't, I wouldn't see that as a big like Fish. I think the East Coast was, that era was like, everyone knew the band. But Northeast Ohio was Juggalo country. So I could have taken a different route entirely. And there's's there's a lot of uh who somebody wrote uh oh there's like we've had him on our podcast yes yeah he yeah oh yeah he wrote an article like how both the juggalos and the fish fans are sort of similar he lives in

both worlds i i believe yeah oh okay yeah no you know see that was the thing where i grew up too in in northern florida the there i knew some people who liked fish but especially the uh the the drug users who enjoyed music in my world they more were into juggalos than like the the biggest pot user i knew was like he would tell me all the time like now look the great malinko means this in junglo henry you were invited to the dark carnival i was a few times but i i well that's the thing with this episode i think i've been high on marijuana less than a dozen times like and every time uh i just i don't get it i i need a better mix i just get too nervous every single time. So yeah. I know people who've tried it like four times and they're just like, my heart rate goes way up.

This chemical in the thing makes me like, it just does not settle well with me. I guess too, Mike, when it comes to comedy about pot, and you're also a professional comedy writer and performer too. Well, I i mean what do you think of people who ask comedy writers like you who that good comedy is dependent on smoking pot or like oh you must have been high when you wrote this kind of no no i know that's to to if you were working on a tv show and getting high and writing you would be wasting everyone's time and you just be like no we can't do any of this. You need to not be high at work. This is unprofessional.

Go home. I'll do the thing where I'll partake and write some notes down that I think are so funny. And it's just like I'm cracking the code of even how a TV show or movie should be written. And the next day you read it. And it's usually on my notes app on my phone. It's full of misspellings and autocorrects all over the the place so the sentences don't even make sense and they're not funny they're only funny to a someone who's high as well well we're talking about a weed experience i i was a like amateur pothead until about five years ago and that's uh it was it was every day

but it was when my work was done so i was not i was being professional too when it came to podcasting and writing about video games uh but i i just got i just got kind of tired of it and now i i do have a bad reaction to it now maybe it just it's too strong now but whenever if i if i smoke weed i feel like okay what if i forget how to breathe and i'm thinking about that for the next 45 minutes uh how do i swallow things like that like natural processes i start thinking about that and i start freaking out a little bit interesting yeah so and then like i'll try to have it socially but then it's like well i just feel really awkward now and i don't know well did i say something stupid then so i feel like uh maybe i've had enough maybe i just yeah i

the the being social is a difficult thing i think for a for a lot of people. It's like, you know, you all of a sudden, especially if you're with people who aren't also smoking weed, because then you're, if everyone's high and everyone knows they're high, it's like, oh, we're all going to be silly and make mistakes. When you're with people who aren't high, it's like, oh my God. I've noticed if I smoke weed here in New York where it's legal and I'm walking out into the real world, I get that thing. It's such a stonery thing to do, but it's like, man, I think everybody's high here.

And New York is just filled with so many different types of people walking, like very straight-laced people, very out-of-this-world type people. And you just look at all of them and you're like, they're probably all high, man. Look at that guy in the suit. He probably does the most of all. That's the very Homer reaction in this episode. I mean, the opposite reaction is something that I had when I started dabbling,

when friends that were way more experienced, we'd get really high and be like, let's go to the store. And I would think, people are going to know. They'll all know. Yeah, yeah. And I see high people like every time I turn my head, there's somebody that just reeks of weed and I don't care. We live in Berkeley, California.

Yes, it's literally. Oh, right, right, right. I mean, the first thing I did when I moved to Berkeley 12 years ago is get my medical marijuana card. Now, of course, it's go to the weed store. You don't need a card. I walk by it every day. Watching this now, I was like, oh, yeah, I had friends whose whole personality was the guy who did pot growing up who had the hookup and now it's like there are still states in the u.s where it is not legal

at all but it's so legal in most of the u.s uh that it doesn't feel special and i wonder what's happening to those guys who are defined by pot use what they do and it's i think they probably bumped up to coke and so it is a gateway drug is what you're saying here's something in new york it's in in the city here i mean in all of new york state it's legal but they're they don't have shops set up the way they do in la or there's there's more cities in california than just la uh in california no others there's just two yeah right and and i read this article recently that was like so you can go to like a vape shop let's say here and you'll see on the front it'd be like thc sold here and i i went inside and i was like you sell actual like

marijuana here and they're like yeah i was like not just like cbd like no no you we can sell the planted so like the flower or the pre-rolled or anything like that and i read this article about it it was like the cops and legislation like it's not figured out yet so these guys are just these people who run the vape stores like yeah we're just gonna start selling it and see what happened no one like the mayor doesn't want to crack down on it and make it like a bad thing like the way it was in like the 80s or 90s or whatever so they're kind of just letting it go but maybe eventually they're gonna take care of like crack down on it i don't know yeah there's there's a lot of weird uh stuff up in the air with uh marijuana because in

california we have delivery of course and i'm sure it's in a lot of other places but the few times i've had it happen it's like you need to use a debit card you can't use a credit card because i think the idea was oh people are gonna buy weed with credit that's crazy so you have to use a debit card you can't use a credit card because i think the idea was oh people are going to buy weed with credit that's crazy so you have to use a debit card and then they have to give you back change oh so it's like i'm actually making a different transaction and we just happens to pass yes yes right i feel like there's some weird like uh phantom transaction happening there the way i've heard it here is because there are still delivery people you're paying for their gas money you're not paying for the weed they're selling for the gas money. The sort of residual thing of all this is now

people are selling mushrooms like crazy. And those are still illegal, I believe. But it's like, hey, as long as the door is opening a little bit for this weed, let's just start selling mushrooms too, I guess. We should start talking about the show soon, but I go to Vancouver a lot, and I think magic mushrooms, in quotes, were just legalized to a certain extent, and you see posters for them everywhere. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. Henry, I don't think you would like them. If you can't handle weed, you would jump- If pot already makes me- You would jump off this balcony. If pot already- The last time I did an edible, I was like, man, I feel pretty good for about 30 minutes, and then the rest of the time I i was like i need to just lay in bed and close my eyes and tell myself i'm not dying i just need to well so the behind the scenes on this episode uh is is interesting and i even did some original

research guys the as they talk about it on the commentary it's written by john vd who uh is a simpsons legend a season one writer and a super nice guy we've interviewed writer of mr plow among many other episodes but uh but the episode is actually pitched by george meyer another season one legend he thought it'd be funny if homer got addicted to medical marijuana because you don't a pot is non-habit forming as they say so that would be the joke but and george meyer a longtime comedy pal of bob odenkirk as well he's like if you pause at the right time in a season two episode of mr show you can see him in the audience you can spot all kinds of fun people like alissa milano yeah in season one it's

incredibly distracting though like margaret cho is like right behind uh john ennis i'm just like well okay is she here for a liner no she's just in the audience okay but also that george meyer was a or is a big fan of fish and the grateful dead and yeah mike i was wondering have you how have you met other famous or comedy pros at fish concerts like not like not you went there with them but you're at a fish concert like you're like, hey, it's you. The only person I've really ever seen, I mean, I used to go with Harris Whittles to shows, and the only person that I've ever seen there, I'm trying to think.

Oh, I went to a Grateful Dead concert, their like 50th anniversary thing at Soldier Field, and we saw Bill Walton was there. Oh, that's cool. He's a basketball player. He's a big, well-known deadhead. But I saw the younger Pete from the Pete and Pete show at a Fish concert once. And this is probably when I was in high school.

And I was like, hey, it's Pete from Pete and Pete. Because I was like yelling down to him because he was on the floor. And he looked up at me just like, don't say that. I'm not doing that right now. Leave me alone. Actually actually that reminds me uh i i we hold no degree of fame henry and i but every once in a while we do get recognized just because we've been doing this for a long time and uh even before i was really podcasting for a while i was coming out of dispensary and a fan saw me and they talked to me and they were like don't worry i won't tell anyone i'm not gonna narc yeah don't tell henry

i i told him i'd stop yeah and uh it's a it's a fun commentary too though because al gene who was a showrunner on the episode he talks about how when they pitched it the fox censors hated it because they thought that the entire point of it was to get the visual representation of homer smoking pot on the show that they that the anarchists writers it was to get the visual representation of homer smoking pot on the show that they that the anarchists writers of the show are like we're finally going to show kids yeah we're smoking pot and we'll destroy america and so that's why homer cannot actually his lips get close to it you do not see homer's lips touch the end of a joint and inhale yes and this is happening at the same time in which that 70s show is a big

hit for Fox, and every episode includes a scene where all the kids are high, but they can't actually show the kids doing the activity. Right. It's just like they're in the garage and there's kind of a mist around, right? And they're all being silly. And I respect the writing on that show, but boy,

those scenes must have been easy, right? Like, what would high people say? Or maybe it's as hard as writing for Ralph Wiggum or something. Maybe it's actually a lot harder than you think. Well, and now we're about to see more of it with That 90s Show coming to Netflix. Oh, really? Certain people are not going to be there. Some people, yeah.

Some people not invited back, but hey, Kerwood Smith is there. Hyde's died in a second Vietnam. Wait, I didn't know about this is it uh the same like the original cast coming back and now they have kids or something uh some of them yeah the parents are back and they're moving back into the house i think it's mainly about kitty and red the parents yeah of the show yeah and there's the it's mainly and it's set in the 90s so it's called that 90s Show. Right. Yeah. All right.

But yeah, so not only that, they also are funny on the commentary because no writer wants to say they know what Smoking Pot is. Because it was recorded in 2010, so they're all like, well, I think we're a pretty sober bunch of writers, and I don't know about Smoking Pot. I mean, neither. David Silverman, director, is there. One of the artists, and he says no comments. Yeah, he's David Silverman, famous for being at, like, every Burning Man and having an art installation there, which, so, yeah, I'm sure he's pretty sober.

You know who's a deadhead? Donna Carey, the Canyonero episode writer. Yeah, he's cool. Among many good ones. But he, yes, I know him as a deadhead Yeah, he's cool. Among many good ones. But yes, I know him as a deadhead, and he did that. There was that LSD Netflix documentary he sort of spearheaded. Oh, cool.

I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. He's a great dude. And they were also- Hey, look, look. Hey, whoa. Wait a minute. Before we continue. I'm not saying anything about his-

I don't know if he smokes weed. He likes The Grateful Dead. That's all I know. That's it. I can't come on this and talk for other people's habits. know if he smokes wheat he likes the grateful death that's all i know that's it yeah i cannot i can't come on this talk for other people's habits uh there's also a funny bit that they thought that this would be the controversial episode but it's the one that airs right before this is the brazil episode they thought would be non-controversial that's the one that pissed

off everybody all the brazilian government while nobody was mad about Homer smoking pot. What was their problem about, like, I don't really remember that episode. The Brazilian Tourism Board, especially, and many people in Brazil felt it defamed Brazil. Oh, okay. Yeah. But, Henry, I want to hear about your original research because this episode won the Stoney Award. Hey! research because this episode won the stoney award hey so yes uh the high times magazine gives out the stonies for like best pot things in like best tv series best movie best book all

that stuff pot things and was jason muse the presenter i i don't know who the presenter was but so yes i hear on the commentary they mentioned that carolyn omine uh accepted the award for it and she's not on the commentary but we we are friendly with with executive producer on the simpsons uh carolyn omine so i i sent her a message and said hey do you do you remember this did you did you get stoney and uh she says yes she did that she said uh it was in uh 2003 a big appeal of it was that they would pay you to fly to manhattan and pay for all your travel and everything to come and accept it and she says that the award is quote a glass bong mounted on a marble stand oh uh and and she is uh i believe she was seen as the the biggest expert on weed culture at at the time and so that's why she was the one who jumped at it though uh she also joked that said word of advice if high times magazine is making

your travel arrangements expect a certain amount of spacing out that's great yeah that's great she apparently helped a bit with a lot of the naturalistic stonerisms in this episode apparently she does she's not credited writer on it but obviously we all know that everybody writes especially with the sims and mike reese uh said they had a lot of fun sharing their stories about pot use it was he said it's the most fun episode they ever wrote together reese in his book says he learned to smoke pot out of it out of an apple bong in college but that that's his only reference to doing, there's no mention of using of pot in the Simpsons writer's room in the book, unfortunately.

No one will cop to it. But there was, I did hear a stat that the most bags of Cheetos were eaten during the writing of this episode. So draw your own correlation on that. They were a snack-friendly writer's room at the time. Sorry, one last preliminary thing. Episode is called Weekend at Bernsies.

Now, I would always confuse this with the episode The Mansion Family because they actually spend a weekend at Bernsies in that episode. But obviously, the title is indicating the third act, Weekend at Bernies parody, and there's a Simpsons connection to Weekend at Bernies. Weekend at Bernies is a Fox movie, and one reason Fox was confident in putting The Simpsons on the air was they put a short, a Simpsons on the air was they put a short a Simpsons short before Weekend at Bernie's just to test it out and people loved it they liked

it more than the movie and that gave it the confidence to put it on the air and that was summer of 89 of course Simpsons is fall of 89 so because of Weekend at Bernie's we have 34 years of The Simpsons that's amazing that's cool I This title does always confuse me when I look at it on lists because it's The Simpsons. It's the Homer Pott episode, and instead of having a Pott pun or anything, it's only about the last two minutes of the episode is what it's named after.

I completely forgot about the Burns part of this when I rewatched it for this podcast, and I was like, burnsies? Is that like a burning, you know, like a burner, like a burning weed type of thing? I was like, oh, no, burns. Of course, one of the main characters. They should have called it medical marjuana. Ooh.

That's my pitch. And just to give people who don't follow weed laws in america too closely uh just to show you where they were at at the time when this was written in 2001 to air in early 2002 medical weed was legal in california and six other states mainly across the west coast it was slowly unfurling and and of course you know the uh depressing facts about pot restrictions in america is mainly to it became illegal to abuse poor and non-white people and and also politically left people like it's uh and slowly undoing it and and i will say the thing that taught me most politically about pot laws as a kid uh was the system of a down song prison song oh which is the the line they're gonna build a

prison they're gonna build a prison for you and me to live they actually take just a set a moment in the song to just like basically read you stats about mandatory minimum sentencing and how that's you know uh it's used on pot laws and everything so uh that that song radicalized me but yeah it's like now today pot is legal in 39 states uh and retrocreational use is legal in washington dc and 19 states so quite quite a difference from when this episode aired and also to show how much things have changed since then in 2020 they did another pot episode where marge just gets a job at a legal dispensary and is really enjoying it. So yeah, she works for... Good.

Though, of course, you know, obviously there are more than 40,000 people still in jail for weed-related crimes that obviously should be expunged. But that's the depressing, sad facts of pot things. There were a bunch of... Biden did do some... Got some people out of jail right it

was very taken effect it was very specifically federal uh weed charges and uh so it's like i don't know who that applies to maybe if you're busted in washington dc or something it definitely applies to dc i remember in that you know some people do have been arrested for crimes or crimes with it uh charged with like possession uh possession in a public park or something, that that's under federal jurisdiction, which is obviously just a small move forward, but a good thing, not bad, good. But yeah, hopefully it's a sign that Joe Biden,

who even I think even two years ago was still pretty strongly against pot legalization, but I think even he is lightning was still pretty strongly against pot legalization but i think he's even he is lightning on that just a little bit at the very least for political reasons because at something when this episode has the joke of oh if there was a vote to legalize pot the potheads would forget about it like that has been proven not to be true people show up and vote to legalize pot when it's on the ballot. Like, it's... Yeah, yeah. The Simpsons will be right back.

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Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Welcome to the break, everybody. It's Henry here, and we hope you're enjoying either some extra fancy potato chips or some texas thc and a big thank you to our guest this week mike hamford of the sloppy boys the band and the podcast check out their podcast they're supported on patreon check out when they're coming to your town sloppy boys are a real fun time thank you so much again mike also if you enjoy this podcast

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is approaching 300 hours of exclusive podcast so please check it all out for yourself at patreon.com slash talking simpsons But first off, though, the episode begins with a bit about genetically modified foods, which, honestly, I don't know anything really about. When I Googled it, I feel like Google is trying to get me to fall down a wormhole to learn about how genetically modified soy is destroying testosterone in men or something. I feel like it's trying to get me to fall down a wormhole to learn about how like soy genetically modified soy is destroying testosterone in men or something I feel like I'm trying it's trying to rat it out is that what soy boy comes from is that what that I believe that's where those reactionaries

make it up from yes I feel like you have to go out of your way not to find non genetically modified food and actually on the commentary Mike Reese says they often make fun of things without even hating them or disagreeing with them. So he took a poll like who in this room actually cares about this? And nobody did. This used to be a much longer

set piece until they kind of had a little vote. Like, why do we hate this? Yeah. Well, Mike, you're all gets healthy right now with your keto and everything. Trying to. The keto, you know, you fall off the keto diet all the time the keto

for those who don't who you who don't listen to my podcast i'm trying i was just trying to eat healthier but i told everyone i was doing keto just because i wanted to say keto i'm on the keto diet but uh you know it's not really keto how could it be but yeah i never i i don't think about genetically modified foods and they you know 20 ago, there was some concern of like, if kids grow up eating this, it'll be a word, you know, it'll destroy things. And I guess, you know, judge for yourself if the world is worse from 20 years. Here's what I'll say about this first scene. It sets off this weird sort of pattern with Homer in this episode.

And maybe this was happening more in this season but he's really mean to march don't you think like she's like oh how do you like your food or something he's like same old garbage you know the thing you played and it's like and he does other things where he's like don't you tell anyone he's like shaking his fist at her i i don't know where that came from it's specific to this episode or this season but but it kind of, I noticed it throughout the whole episode. I think they're bouncing back from a very mean Homer era and they're kind of winding that down, but they're still trapped in the pattern.

It's like, what's the worst or meanest thing you could say right now? Wouldn't it be funny if you said that? And that's kind of how every scene plays out, but that gets a little tamped down over time. Al Jean just took over the show again at this, at this point. Okay. Yeah. That's why I was curious if you guys knew of like a pattern happening. tamp down over time uh al jean just took over the show again at this at this point okay yeah that's

why i was curious if you guys knew of like a pattern happening there this is when they're trying to get him to be less mean but so if you were to watch a season 12 episode we can point you to several where like i think there's uh i can think of just two right off the top of my head of homer knocking marge unconscious uh not yeah not, well, he like gives her a rag. Yeah, he puts a rag to her face and makes her unconscious or gives her a nerve pinch and makes her unconscious. In both cases, so she'll stop nagging, which I think we've heard from Dana Gould

that Jim Brooks did not like that joke. Season 13 is a rebuilding season. Yes, yeah. Things calm down a little bit next year on the show. But even for like an episode about Homer being high and being a stereotypical stoner guy, to still be a little mean was... Yeah, he's still... I mean, the shaking fist, that's pretty typical. I know, he's been doing that for years.

I guess they acknowledge it much later on at the jump ahead where Lisa says, I want my old dad back, the one who yelled at me and screamed at my mother and yeah what do i even want anymore yeah homer's reaction to the baby corn being that big is very over the top like whoa that's that's pretty good uh as yeah though then when marge decides she doesn't want after watching the carrot eat a potato eat a carrot uh marge decides she doesn't want gm foods anymore and she's gonna make her own foods which this also feels like we've identified many stories that seem like a a writer on the staff who's kind of grumbling about their wife's new hobby or something this is kind of what it feels like too but no one says that on the commentary but yeah i uh but yes marge grabs

dirty hoe brand seed corn and and other things to do a backyard garden. All right, family. Who can guess what's different about dinner tonight? Same old garbage. This guy's always on. Oh, you two. We're eating genetically modified vegetables. Look how big they are.

This corn doesn't look so big. That's baby corn. What? American corporations should stop playing God with nature. There's nothing to be afraid of. They're all grown by the vegetable division of Union Carbide. Mom, my potato is eating a carrot.

That's it from now on i'm going all our vegetables myself and uh so then come in the crows which i also was a surprise thing that came up in my questions to carolyn omine because i just wanted to know about the stony award and i was like oh yeah what was that like but she also mentioned that all the crow stuff in this that she put a lot into that because she loves crows and she is the person who fed to the crows at the writer's office like yeah they talk about how there were lots of crows around the writer's room and when a joke wouldn't get a laugh at a table read they would count a crow cause a laugh she said that she would be the one to feed them and she says like there are a few that knew me and would swoop over my head when i walked out of the building or they'd walk back and forth on a railing outside the window of the writer's room it was their way of asking for a snack so yeah a few who knew me crows are mate does that is that where they show the exterior of the power plant?

There's always that crow caw? Yeah, I wonder if that... Crow caw, that sounds weird. I wonder if that influenced the crow stuff. Well, and Mike, you know, your co-sketch writer in the Birthday Boys, Mike Mitchell, he was in and out of that writer's room all the time. Did he ever get attacked by any crows? You ever hear crow stories?

No, no, he never got attacked by crows. He would attack the crows. Now, Henry, why would a cute little crow attack Mike? Sorry, attack Mike Mitchell. Yeah, I think you're putting too much on crows because crows are adorable. They're very intelligent, and they will be your friends. They can recognize faces.

So never hurt a crow because they will remember you for life. They'll pass it on through their family. Oh, wow. Yeah. Come on. Yeah, yeah, and if you feed them enough, they'll remember you for life. They'll pass it on through their family. Oh, wow. Come on. Yeah, and if you feed them enough, they'll bring you gifts. Wow. Omine, she's with you in crow love, Bob.

Did the crow attack someone, honestly? Well, this episode made me think they did. You've been watching that awful Alfred Hitchcock movie, haven't you? This is a huge leap from from the like i always loved how the simpsons start in one place and then by the end of act one you're in a completely different place this was a huge leap from from like gmo gm what was it gm food crows homer getting his eyes stitched and like now we're into the weed port all of this to get to it yeah this is usually it's like oh we're gonna go to a book fair or whatever and that's the whole act one this one is like really three two minute act ones to uh in a

row uh but yes marge is surrounded by crows she's tried heckling them and jackling them which is referenced in terry toons cartoon crows heckle Jekyll. And then Marge decides she's going to build a scarecrow. It really hit me. This has so much music in this episode. They paid for at least the song rights, not the full master rights, but if I only had a brain. Is that a Fox movie?

No, that's MGM. MGM, yeah. Well, it was MGM and then Turner bought that and Warner bought that, so it's Warner. They had to pay for it, though. Mike, I ask this, too, is you're working on television shows are you guys jealous of how huge seemingly the simpsons music budget was then because they they have like four different songs in this episode oh yeah i mean it seems like at this point season 13 the simpsons

could put any song they want i'm surprised has there ever been a beetle song in a yes there was uh actually in a similar scene to homer's uh stony drive when he in lisa's pony is very tired and driving they paid a whole lot of money for the beetle song golden slumbers and they were pissed that it wasn't even the real version of it like they had to do a cover he just got the song rights to it yeah we we did um in in the birthday boys show we there's a scene where uh mitch and i are playing pool and uh billiards and you know we just like it's like it's like one of those kind of uh what's that paul newman movie oh yeah the color of money color money it's like a take on that where we're like two big shot pool players just like playing pool by ourselves and we just can't get the eight ball in and uh we had werewolves of london playing because i think that's

the song that's in color money and uh we couldn't get one of the producers at ifc knew someone in at the zivana state so they wouldn't give us the song but they allowed us to re-record the song so mike mitchell is singing the song wow i didn't know yeah yeah he's he's got a good voice now i've i've heard him guest on uh well no i guess i heard a guy who sounds like him on a mumford and son song once on a sloppy boys episode because of course that song was sung by the mumford and sons not, not you and Mike Mitchell doing voices. Of course. But this then leads to a pop-up video reference, which I feel like is also lost to time if you weren't alive then.

Yeah. I loved pop-up video. As a nerd who loves trivia, I watched, even for many music videos, I didn't give a crap about. I was like, I want to know, like, oh, what was it like on the set of I Kissed a Girl or whatever? That's the first one that comes to mind. And the show was almost like on the set of I kissed a girl or whatever that's

that's the first one yeah and the show was almost done it's done in August of 02 so they're getting their shots in at the last minute I uh I like that the pop-up video joke because they had two real real you know things and then the joke about the you know it was the same uh jack--o-lantern from different House of Horrors. Treehouse. The last one was Grandpa's Hat. Who shot Grandpa's Hat? Which is obviously a fake one. I like the

deterioration of the joke there. And that it's presented by comic book guy Smugface, which is the perfect presenter of trivia. Pop-Up Video, they did a reboot of it, I think comic book guy smug face which is the perfect presenter of trivia yeah it's pop-up video they did a reboot of it uh like i think in 2010 uh though it was it was short-lived on vh1 but yeah the pop-up video i mean there's the pop-up video but then there were so many like imitators i think too it's like it's not the exact pop and the exact logo but you can you can do it and now i think it's

one of those things it's like it's just killed by the internet you can just go to the you can go to the uh the imdb trivia page to learn every pop-up video yeah you could know about something i think that amazon x-ray feature is just pop-up video right yes yeah and it's annoying i don't like it amazon is that the one where if you pause it you can see like who's in the scene yeah yeah and like trivia too like imdb trivia about certain things i don't know how they how they get the data and how they distribute it but uh yeah that could that could ruin a like if you think a character has gone out of the movie and then you pause it and you see that actor is going to be in this scene you're like oh they'll he'll be back yeah

that you know not to not to talk about mitch all the time on this but uh when i uh amazon prime i just think about uh i made my avatar the mike mitchell from from his movie avatar on on prime video and so i see tomorrow war oh yeah it's tomorrow war character uh every uh cow that's that's cool that they like they go that deep not that he was like nothing in that movie he had a significant part but uh that's cool that they like that he's one of them that movie needed more of the mitch man that's what i think they got yeah yeah yeah he uh he was removed too quickly uh not to spoil the film but no spoilers and maybe he died maybe he just left who knows uh but yeah so marge successfully constructs a scarecrow it scares everybody off um the first ned and his children try to pray to the cross of a scarecrow it scares everybody off um the first ned and his

children try to pray to the cross of the scarecrow that's that's a good joke that she thinks that they're you think that she's going to be shooing off crows but she's shooing off christians yes i've i've just as am i watching here on mute one of my favorite uh jokes from the episode is when homer comes back and he sees the thing he is character runs away and he's like i'll regroup at red lobster he needs to that's such a funny regroup is such a funny thing for a dumb guy to say and and that's where he gets the confidence to kill a man uh which is what he as far as he knows he beats him to death brutally but i also like the a comment on hacky comedy of marge saying marge is in the house or i will be sued because it needs some cleaning i'm just excited but yes so homer comes back from red lobster after being scared

off beats it to death he says you ain't pretty no more a reference to raging bull uh then which is it's what they say after mr raging bull himself kamata horribly beats up a guy and they say he ain't pretty no more so there's a reference but once homer kills it the crows fall in love with him and marge's garden is completely forgotten like many plot points in this episode this is well observed behavior they they like their hero they bring him things usually crows will just bring you like bottle caps and like pull tabs and stuff it's not they're not going to the store and making transactions for you. Not getting you pornography. But yes,

in our first clip here, Homer explains how he got some crows. So Lisa says, by killing their enemy, I became the alpha crow. I gotta admit, I'm kind of nervous here. We haven't seen Barney since they enveloped him. I'm sure he'll turn up. Look, here's one of his buttons.

That's it. Get him out of here. This ain't no crowbar. This is a crowbar. See? They got the little stools and everything. There's Russell Crowe, Cameron Crowe,

Crowe Diddley, Hume Cronin, Gregory Peck. Homer, I'm very uncomfortable having a gang of crows in our bedroom. It's a murder, honey. A group of crows is called a murder. I'm sleeping on the couch.

And Homer is sober when he's friends with all these crows. This is before he gets high. This is unrelated to that. The crows just sound like Yardley Smith. Yes, yeah. Going, rah, rah. I think I hear some Nancy Cartwright crows. Yeah, yeah.

But yeah. Who was the, what was the, he was naming the crows, and like obviously Russell Crowe and Sheryl Crowe. Who was the one, it was like, a name I didn't recognize. Now I can't think of it. Is it Hume Cronin? Yeah, who's Hume Cronin? He was in Cocoon.

He was one of the old guys in Cocoon. But he acted for like 40 years before that. Gotcha, gotcha. 80s kids know him as an aged man. Yeah, yeah. Hume Cronin. I wonder if they thought they were going to kill off Barney with that. They were like, you know, we're sick of sober Barney.

Let's just have the crows eat him and we'll not bring him back. That is such a funny, like, he sees his button and there's blood on it. And Ober thinks that means that he's safe and fine. You know that part there when Homer's like, a murder, a group of crows is called a murder. That's like a tone, a sort of cadence that Homer takes on a lot. And it's like very specific to him. And in my daily life, I've known people who watch Simpsons and it's like very specific to him and in my daily life i've known people who watch simpsons and also talk like that do you think that was like a way of talking that like

as a reference to anything or the simpsons invented that and people just now have this like cadence i i think it's just uh whatever dan castellaneta decided to do because they he was doing that voice back in uh as early as like the earlier seasons because i remember um him saying elephant honey stampies and elephants just the yes gently correcting but in a very patronizing way and being wrong and he's correct like but i mean sometimes he's not correct but uh it just is a for a tv show to like come up or dan casanova to come up with like a new style of talking, I don't know. It seemed pretty powerful. That kind of sarcastic comforting, I guess you'd call it.

But then Homer, it works great too because Homer's so stupid, he doesn't know. In this case, he thinks, well, no, this is reassuring you. They're called a murder, honey. Come on. Yes. Let's lay in bed with all these crows. Yeah, there's some fun animation of Homer being fed by the crows as one crow jams in a chunk of the donut into his mouth.

But that's when the crows go even farther of picking up Maggie and flying her, which she is not scared by. She's totally fine with it. She's into it. Maggie is unflappable no pun intended uh but also this is where there's a secret deleted scene on the dvd where when maggie's being flown around abe and jasper are watching her and they say like oh look at maggie she's flying already feels like just yesterday she hatched. So that's a cute line. It's okay. Yeah. And so Maggie's dropped. Her diaper becomes a parachute and saves her.

And then this is when Homer has to break up with the crows. They don't like it in our next clip. Oh, thank God you're okay. Okay, that was not cool. We need to lay down some ground rules. We'll get to that. Right now, I think we need some time apart. All right, that's it.

Shoo, you stupid crows! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! That is not a worm! So, look. That is not a worm. That's not a worm is kind of uncharacteristic for the simpsons

yeah homer's penis is uh viciously attacked uh here and then three minutes later in the episode it's so it's so soon after it's like i get that is not a worm it's like that definitely feels like a last second joke you come up with because you're like yeah we can't just go out and homer screaming we need a joke here and you can see how that's you know kind of a sweaty pitch at the end of the day and you go like well i like i'm assuming a lot on it but it definitely sounds like late adr that they put in in it but yes uh but yeah it definitely feels like if they're gonna have a joke very soon about homer's crotch being bitten you don't also need a joke of the of the crows also biting his penis you know that's right just be choosier pick one uh but yes we come back

intact to all of this to set up homer having an injury that needs to be uh prescribed to marijuana like that's all there's no reason it was crows otherwise right we finally got there though this also was a real standard thing then because in season 12 there's jaws wired shut or sorry jaws wired shut is this season and last season there's children of a lesser clot in both episodes homer has a fun adventure in act one and then at the start of act two he is in the hospital right given a prescription that will cause the rest of the episode's plot. And change his personality drastically. Yes.

In this case, while he's getting stitches in his eyes, he gets a special prescription. Well, there is a medication, although it's a little controversial. Does it go in the butt? I'm talking about medicinal marijuana. Prescription pot. Texas THC. Look, man, I don't do drugs. Homer, for your eyes, the best tonic is chronic.

You're not afraid, are you? I had a bad experience with drugs. It was that golden weekend between summer school and regular school. Hey, Homer, want to smoke some marijuana? They say it's a gateway drug. Well, well, If it isn't the Doobie Brothers. Uh-oh. Crotch the weed, man.

Smell any drugs, Sergeant Scraps? Oh! Oh! Oh! For me, the 60s ended that day in 1978. But, Homer, you can't let a single bad experience scare you away from drugs. But isn't marijuana or dope illegal?

Only for those who enjoy it. Medical use of marijuana is legal in this state. We'll also provide you with a prescription bong. You want the wizard or the skull i'd go with wizard that would be my pick the wizard's fun yeah wizard wizard's more fun it's wizard versus skull i'm picking it's less practical the the wizard yeah yeah it's not like a nice round skull yeah that's true i guess the guys i gotta i gotta tell you something that just happened was we were listening to that clip that sort of fits in with the uh drug doing marijuana smoking uh Pink Floyd's

Dark Side of the Moon matching up with Wizard of Oz as we were listening to that I fast forwarded enough and like you know skipped ahead enough to get right it came in perfectly on sync it was the best right right from when Homer was getting smashed side to side by the dog. From then on, his lips were lined up perfectly. That's a game we invite all of our guests to play. Yeah, sync it up. It's exciting. It's exciting.

Now, this is medical marijuana. And I remember, of course, I said it earlier, but when I moved to California, one of the first things I did was get my medical marijuana card. And you needed an excuse or a reason to get your marijuana. And I took it way too seriously, because I didn't talk to anyone who actually did it. And I was like, oh, they're going to ask me all these questions, and what do I have? Do I have headaches? Do I have back pain?

Nausea? I'm thinking of all these ideas, and wait a minute, I'm anxious. Anxiety! That's one of them. And really, it's just like, back then, they just wanted to make sure it won't kill you. And the guy was very chill and very nice and he could tell i was taking it too seriously he's like listen we just want to make sure you don't die when you smoke weed so i see that's all was he's like would you chill out man

this is i think you need to get high yeah try this man then we can talk about your marijuana sorry that clip had a super funny joke that was uh the 60 died for me that day in 1978 yes yeah they don't that's great that homer was still acting that way in 78 i i also really love homer very briefly he becomes a character in like an after-school special of like but isn't marijuana or dope illegal uh just as big they say it's a gateway drug. Yeah, that's the attraction for Carl, that it's a gateway drug. So Homer takes his weed, and this is where, man, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Incense Peppermint, that's such a corny drop in it.

It's like they must have spent like $30,000 to have that obvious drop in there. A lot of times when marijuana is depicted in media especially around this era it's often conflated with like psychedelic drugs which is very strange because they have such different effects but i think it's hard to the effects of marijuana it's like how do you depict ren and stimpy being funnier and in food tasting better or whatever or like you've just feeling elated it's more fun to have your like magical experience where you're on the you know the things floating through the sky

the rainbows pouring out of your the wounds in your face things like that that's a really funny specific like why would that the rainbows like who thought of like yeah let's have them shave and instead of blood rainbows would come out I mean I get the rainbow

thing connected with weed but who thought of, that's where it comes from? It was so funny. It is. I think it was VD's pitch, but yeah. So Homer gets high, and this is when Dan Castellaneta gets to sing along with Deep Purple. Yeah. They burned down the castle's house.

It died within a book's town. I am hungry for a candy bar. I think I'll eat a mound. He's having fun there. I think they just let him go. Well, the first half of what he sings is the real lyrics to the song, which burned down the gambling house. It died with an awful sound but

the next lines are funky claude was running in and out he was pulling kids down he was pulling kids out the ground now man hey what was this guy on when he wrote these i didn't know this the biography of funky claude and i love marge's line, what's that billowing down the stairs? Yeah, yeah. Though, smells like the art teacher's office is an okay line, but it's pretty much the same as the better line, smells like Otto's jacket from Homer Pollux. Yeah, yeah. Homer should have had the paper towel roll with the fabric softener sheets in it. That barely covers up the smell of weed but clearly homer what what homer needed was edibles but i guess this is before they could prescribe edibles to

you and uh it had had to be a joint but yeah so this is when uh marge is very judgy you know in that season 32 episode she sells all this pot but she doesn't get high until challenged on it like oh you work at a dispensary but you never even smoked it and but i love it i love that she instantly is gonna narc on him like unless i unless i turn on you yeah homer has decided this is going to be his whole new life now and this is when we we get a third song in like 90 seconds it's just so many songs but i will say donovan's where your love like heaven is a deeper cut and uh and it's just a nice song i like that song uh aljean maybe we think about the music so much because aljean constantly on the commentary is saying how much something cost or didn't cost

that he says he says donovan's music is very clearable he likes a good montage that's not a slam but he enjoys montages but yes homer rubbing his friend the razor on his face and just uh rainbows pouring out of it that's a funny funny image with with that don with this peppy little donovan song behind it is very nice yeah well that yeah that's sort of what i'm saying like shaving never has never come into my mind as something associated with weed and that's what makes it so funny to me is like the razor is happy and he cuts himself and nice rainbows flat of his face and homer's just like and i love the way his car takes off too it's just like shoots upward yes flies up and then towards the towards work

but uh which he's happy to see because the clouds coming out of it, I guess, are donuts. And yeah, I mean, the colors are lovely. It's just such a fun sequence. And this is when Homer also calls Marge from work. And this was my first time getting high. I had this happiness into instant anxiety thing that Homer has, like when he says, if you tell anybody. The first time i got high i went home and called a friend who lived in another state and i was on the phone with them for an hour i think they were just in uh entertained by me uh being this high and i was telling them

funny stories but then this was like three in the morning i was still living at home with my parents i was like 20 and i would hear a sound outside i was like that's my dad he's outside the door he knows i'm high right now i i know it i know he's right there so that's again it's never i i just it gets me too anxious it does the opposite yeah yeah so uh then we see that homer now that he's high he loves jazz now as well it's just it's great though you talk about homer being mean even when he loves jazz he will force lisa to play music longer than she wants to to the point that she is like almost suffering but at least he's paying her for it at least he's doing that yeah he's 20 bills at a time uh oh and homer's eating the extra fancy potato chips that mr burns was eating in the episode burns his air which that's just me being a live pop-up video thing but that's interesting you said it in the

sound yeah pop-up video but yeah the homer is keeping his kids up late at night this also is when flanders visits him and i do really love his just the way he says like oh my god this guy does the best flanders like i love that flanders is he's like could oh man this is a big book could you read it to me and it's like this is all flanders has ever wanted that's he's in tears such a fun i i like i don't know i i'm sure they put thought into this but i like how it's degenerate thing like doing weed doing weed how old am i smoking weed is uh like like dovetails perfectly into religion it's like if you can get high you can listen to this religion stuff you're very i love the way they're they're talking about it there he's so susceptible to finally hearing the bible from dad and he seems to read it all the way to the end and flanders version of the bible

ends with the end yes i went to catholic school the bible does not end with the end i love how homer just says wow twice like wow wow yeah yeah it sounds like the same uh voice clip or whatever yeah they just cycle it yeah and uh so this is when homer is tricked into signing the uh to be the last signature to put on the ballot recriminalizing pot which yeah there there was a little cycle of it going in and out of criminalization but i feel like now it's just if it got i guess who can ever predict the future of politics but i feel like if it's been legal long enough and we've all seen it doesn't didn't do anything like i feel like nothing the pot is not going to get

recriminalized i don't think but and the finger thing means the taxes oh yes yeah they get a lot of money from it they sure do yeah and we can't tax anyone else so uh tax the weed then homer asked him to do a chief wig on which i wish they say it on the commentary i kind of wish they kept it originally they say they had harry shearer just do a Wiggum voice, and they played that, but then they decided, like, then they decided, like, nah, it should just be, let's just have Hank Azaria's regular Wiggum come out of his mouth. He does.

The character of Ned, though, does a very good Chief Wiggum, though Homer doesn't think so. So then out of nowhere, this turns into a Burns episode, but they have so much fun with burns here and so potential investors i hope you don't think our ipo is an ipu then i hold my nose thusly what do you think smithers bit of a downer sir well i hope the investors like it i have to raise 60 million dollars or we're out of business. Why is that, sir? I told you. I pissed it away. Oh, don't make that face.

Yes, that's the one. Smithers, I need someone who laughs at all my jokes. You know, honest feedback. Oops. I thought this was the can, man. Well, you're a happy homer. What's your name, young man? You just said it! Well, if you like that, listen to this. Working hard or hardly

working? Smithers, you could learn a thing or two from this braying moron. Young man, I'm making you my executive vice president. Sir, I believe that position was informally promised to me. Oh, Smithers, I would have said anything to get your stem cells. Now, welcome aboard.

You're covered with a very fine fuzz. Very fine fuzz. I love everything Burton says. They're like, I pissed it away. And then he's like, don't make that face. Cut back to Smithers making no face. That's the one. They're having so much fun with Burns here.

It's so... Yeah. Like him also, you could learn a thing or two from this brain moron. What a great line. And also stem cells. What a controversy back then. You never... Conservatives...

To think of a conservative politician talking about stem cells now. It's not insane. Like it's such a non-issue now. It's crazy. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

Did I mention that we care? You know, the root of them was about abortion which uh is very in the news right now but uh to to think about stem cells the actual thing like that i haven't heard about those in a very long time i i i feel like it's actually like uh conservative i feel like stem cells were involved in some recent medical breakthrough that like saved some assholes life and people like oh he got saved by stem cells. But clearly I'm a little stoned here. I can't remember.

Also, Smithers is not being his normal supportive self with Burns. He's just shutting him down. Usually he gets to that point if it's a Smithers-Burns storyline. Yeah. But this is like he just takes off with a... He doesn't have much time for him to dally he's just shutting him down but things must be bad if smithers can't get on board with these awful burns jokes right i also love james are bad just the way burns goes and i hold my nose thusly like that's uh so good thusly so homer comes home

he's got a brand new suit to go with his brand new job. Mercedes, too, it looks like. And Marge complains that Homer's ruining all the paper clips in the house, which that feels like boomer pot stuff. Do people still use that to hold up a roach, a paper clip? Is that still a thing? Oh, right, right, right. I don't know.

Yes, I think that's like an older, like something from like the 60s. But that line made me laugh as if like a family keeps tabs on their paper clips. Yes, yeah. Like you use paper clips so infrequently. Either that or to clean out his pipe or bowl, if you will. Ah, I see. Yes, yes. Oh, yes.

I remember I prefer the joke where when Otto's wedding invitations are on rolling paper and then Marge is like zigzag. But this is where Otto comes in here. Homer and Otto are a fun combo that they're just. And then Homer has turned their attic into his like 70s stoned guy pot den like yeah you can even see basically a black light poster of led zeppelin's icarus back in the background too uh yeah though boy doesn't this this also this all feels like exer pot uh exer pot humor or pot humor of like because you stay up late watching the three stooges when you're high because that's what's the only crap that's on the three channels that exist on tv this isn't this should be jokes about staying up all night watching the donnie

darko dvd if this is like 2002 well i think that's also a slam on shemp because we all know shemp is a lesser stooge he's not as bad as curly joe of course but nobody thinks shemp is funny so you must be high to enjoy the antics of shemp of course oh it is a deeper reading yeah yeah that's interesting maybe they're just going with homer like he's finally caught up to what he would if he didn't get his uh crotch chomped by that german shepherd he's like just caught up to what he would be doing if he was high in the 70s instead of the 70s though that again i had that thing hit me recently and then the last week's episode of simpsons or two weeks ago it was one about homer and abe and he's talking about oh growing up you were this and then that's what hit me like when homer's talking about being a

child he is my age or actually one year younger than me now thanks to the sliding timeline which is like oh yeah homer's homer's not a kid of the 60s anymore right right right he would have been graduating high school when this episode aired yes yeah uh uh so uh i also like that in the clip from three stooges mo really is mad they can't keep a job he's just like this is why we've never held down a job he's mad they keep ruining it uh but this is what marge reminds homer of healing his eyes which he has completely forgotten about and this is when homer learns about the referendum uh this also is where otto is so stoned he thinks marge is homer's mom and now it's time to get into fish country to ask and ask a few questions to mike wait there, there's a, going back to that scene,

there's a really funny joke there where Homer's like, we got to turn over that referendum. It's going to take us a lot of man hours. Marge, make us some burritos. And Otto, not really paying attention, all is like, extra guac on mine. Which is such a funny, I love the idea of a guy who's not really paying attention,

but gets enthused all of a sudden. Oh, I heard the burritos. Yeah, extra guac on mine, but gets enthused all of a sudden. Oh, I heard the burritos. Yeah. Extra guac on mine. Yeah. Order's going out. It kind of reminded me in a weird way.

Isn't there a joke when Homer's like, I am done drinking beer. And so he's like, beer here. He's like, I'll take 10. Yes. It's just like that quick turnaround of,

of like enthusiasm. Yeah. It's, it's maybe not the same type of joke, but I don't know. They the same a little bit that's uh that's in uh after he watches barney's movie yeah stars burns stars burns yeah yeah yeah yeah i i don't have a lot of fish notes i have uh the lead fish is named trey anastasio and i take it that uh the song they're playing run like an antelope is is one of the top tier Phish hits.

It definitely is a, if you know Phish, you clearly know that song. Like that was, let's see, this was 2002 this came out. That song is from an album that came out in the mid-90s, I want to say. But yeah, it's very like a crowd-pleasing live song. So when this came out, Phish was in an interesting place, right, Mike? As I read, they were about... Yeah. They were sort of on a hiatus

and they were about to disband within a year or so. They had just... Yeah, they had just taken a two-year break. So this aired... When did this air? April 2002. Okay, and they...

I had to look this up to just get the... They had a little hiatus starting in 2000, and then it ended in December 2002. So the episode would come out, and then they got back together. I see, man. Okay. And then they had a disbanding after that,

and then they got back together a little bit. Then they, yeah, in like 2004, they like broke up, quote, for good, quote, unquote, and then got back together. I forget when. 2007, maybe? 2006? That's I forget when. 2007, maybe? 2006? That's not so long.

No, it's not. Oh, 2008? Okay. Yeah, 2008, they officially reunited. Oh, and archived on fish.com is their announcement of being in the show. They announced it to their fans in October 2001. So about seven months before the episode aired, they let everybody know, hey, we've been recording stuff

to be on The Simpsons, guys. That's funny. I love when bands are on The Simpsons because they need to get a, I don't know if they need to, but they get a line out of every band member. Yes, yeah. I was noting that in this.

I was like, yep, everybody gets a line. I don't know if they're all named. I don't think they say each other's names. So you just get a list of fish people at the end.'m like who is who and they all look so different now so i wasn't sure who was speaking right right right mike gordon is the bass player who's like uh i think he's has a line like oh that was yesterday he's he's the bass player he has very short hair now you know uh trey anastasio they did another appearance. They did a fish joke in an episode last season of The Simpsons, and they did get him back for it.

And they just used the same character model as this one. They didn't change it. Oh, that's cool. That's just his look in that. That's great. I love, so Paige McConnell is the piano player, and he's got the line that I love is like, I forget, but he pronounced pothead pothied. Yes, p's great. And I love, I love, so Paige McConnell is the piano player and he's got the line that I love is like, I forget, but he pronounced pothead pothied.

Yes, pothied. That's such a funny thing to have somebody in Fish be like, what's a pothied? The, yeah, the general jokes about them being incredibly sober and not knowing anything about pot culture is very, it's a good, it's a great record with them. And in the audience, they try to find every character who conceivably could be a pothead not knowing anything about pot culture is very it's a good it's a great yeah with them and in the audience they try to find every character who conceivably could be a pothead and they even got laddie's owner from season eight the uh right the blind man yes the guy who's like without it i can go even blinder that's right so that was ahead of its time medical marijuana joke that's right

right right right he's in the audience is that when yeah that's when the the cops come in like and the the we're jamming yes yeah that's when the cops come in like And the We're jamming Yes That part Yeah, yeah I know I'm trying to get to that scene Where we see the audience

It's like Disco stew Disco stew maybe in there Snake Oh, snake's there, of course Snake, nice Oh, the Criminal

The two hippies who owned the Snapple type thing Yeah, yeah Seth and Munchie Yeah, yeah That episode written by Donna Carey. Oh, there you go. And somebody who's there just for a joke is Hans Moleman.

He is informed by Fish that he's dying. This man is very sick. He's from head to toe. He's reading it up. Okay, okay. Hold on, hold on. I smell marijuana smoke. That better be medicinal. If fish don't see a prescription slip, we are out of here.

We can wait all night, people. Here we go. I had the toes. Whoa, this guy is seriously ill. My doctor never told me that. I had to hear it from fish. A one, a two, you know what to do.

Well, Mike, have you ever been tempted to write a fish cameo into a script just so you can meet the guys? You know what? There was a time at Funny or Die when there was a potential maybe to be working with fish somehow and uh somebody there knew i liked fish and they brought me in to like come up with ideas and we we came up with a few ideas but they were so i don't even

remember any of them but they were so like half baked just because like it was so tenuous to get them to come in and And that never happened. No, I never wrote them into anything. It's not too late. Next time you're pitching a script to somebody. That's true. And then they go to a fish concert. And we and the characters as well as the writer get to meet the band and hang out with them.

And the writer joins them on stage. Well, whenever we talk to people who have animated shows, we say, we have an idea. What if your characters met podcasters and they have similar voices to ours? We think that's a pretty good idea. They're like, oh yes,

we'll have to cast those people. No, no, no. So Mike, I have two last fish trivia questions for a fish expert. Okay, so one is they mentioned this on the commentary that Graining and other Simpsons writers went to a fish concert before this. And that in one of their jams, they break into a little bit the Simpsons theme, which they do in this episode, too. Have you heard that? Is that a regular thing in their jams? They seem to say it was.

I haven't heard it live, and they haven't done it for, as far as I know, years and years. But I've heard it on tapes and stuff. Yeah, they would kind of go into that and have a big, like, the audience be like, Doh! Oh, so they... If they time it correctly, or if not, just the band would do that. So they go, Doh, Doh, Doh, Doh. Then the audience is supposed to say, doh, back at it?

Yeah. I see. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, and that would be probably like a mid-'90s fish thing. But I wonder if they... Did they know that... They must have known the Simpsons writers were going to be there that night.

They aren't sure. Because if it was in 2002, that seems a little late for that sort of fish antic, as far as I can tell. On the commentary, some question if they knew Matt Groening was in the audience that night or not. And the other fish fact question I have for you, Mike, is that, so you know the fish album, the 1994 one, Hoist. And the cover of it is a horse being lifted up uh apparently some fish fans thought that the episode of the simpsons where there is a diving horse pulled out of the water uh in that same manner they fish fans thought it was a sims a reference to that album and simpsons writers said going no no we don't know we don't know this fish album. That episode was a parody of Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

about an actual diving horse. Right, yeah, yeah. Oh, interesting. Wait, wait, that horse wasn't in this episode. No, not in this episode. That was on Saddlesore Galactica. Gotcha, gotcha. No, that's interesting.

That's funny. Some fish fans thought it wasn't right. I think they were a little stoned. I think so. Well, there's also, you know, Fish is in the Grateful Dead and almost anything these days has such an internet presence that theories like that can get bounced around pretty easily. But so this is when Fish lets Homer on stage to get out to the vote. Thank you. And now

a man who's a real pothied, I'm sorry, pothead, Homer Simpson. Good afternoon. I want to thank you all for coming down here, taking time off from your jobs.

Because we need to keep medical marijuana legal. Whether you suffer from glaucoma or you just rented the Matrix, medical marijuana can make things fabulous medically. So, my mellow fellow citizens, when you go into that voting booth on Tuesday the 7th... Uh, Homer? That was yesterday. Oh, man, they already voted! And we lost! Oh, man, I can't believe we spaced on the date What are we going to do?

Well, we can't just stand here staring at our hands Although Oh, that's right I married that chick They call them fingers, but I never see them fing Oh, there they go Oh, there they go. Oh, there they go.

That's some deep auto lore. That was a big joke between me and my friends when this came out. I've never seen them fing. I love the, oh, there they go. I love that. They're finging. One final fish fact that's fact with a PH. Fish is very popular, of course, but I most americans know fish based on their ice cream oh yes the ben and jerry's flavor oh yeah it's it's high level ben and jerry's flavor for me the

the if i'm going to this is turning into a dough boys here but i've the only mark i give against fish food as a ben and jerry's flavor is those chocolate fishes and it get real cold and hard and they can you know they're they're not so fun to chew on all the rest of it i i've sometimes fished out to those fish and they've been like man sure having you i i had some ben and jerry's recently just a very simple flavor was like peanut butter cup and it was like all their flavors delicious but they were full you like you know kind of those those uh quarter size peanut butter cups and they were full in there, so you had to dig out a whole one. You're like, oh my God, I'm just eating a whole candy.

You're just basically mining for them at that point. Yes. Also, I like the shot of Homer framed like he's in Citizen Kane with a photo of him behind him. Also, this is a joke I'm taking from the commentary, but they say it looks like his suit got high. His suit is such a mess. It's all rum rumbled up based on a friend of al jean's who uh was a mess like that he would show

up in a very distressed suit i think it was not a writer friend maybe like a harvard pal they say his name on the commentary but he's not like an imdb or anything the way they bring him up it's just like mike reese and al jean just talking about a guy they knew in college yeah i also it's just like mike reese and al gene just talking about a guy they knew in college yeah i also it's funny too we'd be taking him to task for it if he didn't admit it on the commentary but al gene admits that fingers don't fing was a line they wrote on the critic uh and he reused without remembering that they had done it before oh franklin said it right yes franklin says it in the episode uneasy writer when it's a flashback of a parody of The Graduate where it's, you know, at a party and his dad's giving him wisdom. And he's saying they call them Fingas, but they don't Fing.

So, yes, they admit. Aljean's like, look, you write a lot of jokes. You can't remember them all. I've been doing this for 30 years. You know, sometimes you repeat yourself. And Otto got married to somebody we don't know who and she's gone now it was becky well now see they didn't finish the wedding was that an engagement ring uh well i had an engagement ring okay he could okay all right

but he didn't finish marrying her he left her at the altar but i feel like it is a becky well maybe he forgot to take off the ring. He clearly forgot about the wife. Or he forgot he didn't marry her. I feel like it's a Becky ref. I think you're right. I also love that Homer, to learn the news, he has to get a newspaper out of the machine that's on the stage. On stage. Yeah.

This is pre-cell phone. And so, yes, we come back from the commercial break. The pot is being burned. It's making people too happy, so they pour a bunch of barber hair on it, too. The episode is not about pot anymore. Yes. Suddenly. Suddenly not.

I love Homer. He's like, I could have smoked that pot and worn that hair. Worn that hair. Though this definitely feels like a make good to the censors where they have to have a scene where Homer promises he won't do drugs anymore. He's like, okay, I won't smoke pot anymore now that it's illegal. Pot's bad. Blah, blah, blah.

It's bad for my kids to see me smoke it. Actually, that smoke was a little too inviting. Throw on that sack of barber hair. Oh, I could have smoked that pot and worn that hair. Homie, you don't need drugs anymore. Your eyes are all better. Eyes? What the hell are you talking about? I want my old dad back, the one who was yelling all the time and... You know, I'm not really sure what I want.

Homer, it's over. I want you to look at your children and promise them you will never do drugs again. All right. Now do it for my kids. As long as you're doing things for me. Would you tie up your bathrobe when you walk around the house? Never. I mean, it's so great earlier in the episode, the way he warns Bart of like,

this is the greatest thing and you see all these colors and you must never smoke it or ruin your life and you'll never experience this though why is Homer insistent on keeping his bathroom open all the time like you know but I I do like that Lisa like you said earlier uh Bob that Lisa doesn't know what she wants she's like huh you know maybe I don't want the mean homer back maybe he should be he was uh maybe too supportive but he was a lot calmer and uh and also you know these bongs remind me to carolyn amine clarified the story they say on the commentary which is they said that when she received the stoney award that it was broken she's clarified that it had a crack in it when they gave it to her at the show but they then promised they'd give her the good a real non-broken one later which she did get and she says she still has it's a ceremonial bong though you're not actually using it correct i would think not yeah but i you know i should have asked her if she's ever uh taken use of that

thing i don't know but homer is giving it up he's telling auto to leave that also feels like another great realistic memory of a pothead to like the joke you remember having while stoned with another friend is just the dropped keys sounded like a ringing phone and you think that's the funniest thing that's ever happened yeah something something that just made you like oh what that was a ringing phone which if you weren't high you'd just be like no it's not the phone it was my keys okay you just move on from there but so yes homer throws out auto we then go uh to the bar and we see that his friends all his drunk friends are happy he stopped smoking pot which i thought they were going to go more with this of just like see back to alcohol the good thing we're learning some dark secrets about carl he's a

violent alcoholic that's pretty yes yeah he was hospitalized i feel like that they took that joke from barney and they're like nope now it's carl who does it and again no sign of barney again he is dead for this episode oh yeah yeah i also a good line homer saying going cold turkey isn't as delicious as it sounds that That's a good line. Right, right. But so, as Homer thinks everything's getting better, he gets a call. It's been three days and my mind is clearer. My sperm count is up and I'm able to recognize simple shapes and patterns.

Dad, you just said that three minutes ago. Unregardless, I will no longer be a slave to this. Why are you keeping that thing? As a reminder, Marge. Yellow? Ahoy, hoy, Executive VP. I'm putting the final touches on my speech to the investors and I need your generous guffaws.

But I can't find you funny anymore. I'll either tickle your ribs or feed them to my dogs. Now, we're ordering out what would you like in your pizza pie extra cheese what do you take me for lorenzo de medici see you soon uh that you know that reminds me of of the like things you guys jokes you guys throw out on the dough boys of just like these big like what do you take me for just a what a deep reference of lorenzo de medici that's one of those the greatest types of simpsons jokes that

it's a reference i know is funny i don't know why it's funny but i know it's over my head but i know it has significance so i'm laughing at just the fact that it's means something to someone and i had to look up who Lorenzo de' Medici was. It makes Burns about 500 years old. He doesn't say John D. Rockefeller. He says some guy from the 15th century. Yes, who was a patron to Renaissance artists like Botticelli and Michelangelo.

And now we all benefit from the patron system, right? It's not just for the Renaissance anymore. All you listeners are Lorenzo de' Medici's. Yeah. So why do you think that was the reference there? Because so Medici was like a billionaire, essentially like a billionaire back then. You know, I wonder if it was just that pizza is Italian. And so he says an Italian name, like a rich italian that also of course burns is cheap

so he sees extra cheese is like a necessary expense uh right but yeah that's that's my guess and maybe he had they had to find like someone who was richer than burns to because burns is a billionaire yeah though he has pissed away all his money this episode though but that's true yeah maybe it was just a funny thing to say and they left it at that. I love, I mean, I could hear just the Medici, like just what a great, just the anger of it.

This, I mean, there are lots of old timey references for Burns coming up. They're coming hot and heavy in the next scene. Before Homer heads over, Marge tries to comfort him that he can't laugh now that he's not stoned all the time uh then march tells him to picture burns naked which marge knows very well because she did a very accurate nude painting of mr burns in season two uh brush with greatness and right right right she pitches seeing him in a funny hat which marge pitched funny hat day

uh to burns in season four. Marge gets a job. So, you know, I don't think those are intentional references, but it's funny. She brings up two things she did do to Mr. Burns or with Mr. Burns. So Homer meets up with Smithers. They're both listening to Burns. Neither of them is giving Burns anything. He brings up a thinner negligee than Louise Brooks,

which again is one of those like if you don't have google back then you have to be a very old person to know who louise brooks was right you just have to know who that is i think he says the star of lulu uh but i looked it up she's not the star of lulu she plays lulu in the very racy pre-code film pandora's box the negligees must go pretty high in that one. They're very sheer. You want the Nicola Jays low, Henry. Low.

Low, okay. Look, I don't know what Nicola Jays are. But, you know, that Lulu thing, I did see that her autobiography she wrote in the 80s was like Lulu in Hollywood. So maybe the writers who knew this got that mixed up and thought her character Lulu is in movies called Lulu but I love that flop sweat could kill Mr. Burns and how he has to

shove his one bead of sweat back into his head yeah it's fun it's fun when you see Mr. Burns being incredibly weak like that there's one scene that I always shot I always liked where he's trying to crush an ant and the ant is pushing back and i think it knocks him over i love his effort for the paper cup like he's just like the thumbs up yeah yeah oh yeah the thumb up the brain yes but uh but so in this case burns is going to take a bath eola which this was a thing back in season 12 or so they they mentioned that they stopped trying to find real old words for burns to say and they just added the word eola to the like my windola my bath eola they yeah but but this is when a tragedy strikes one of us has got to start laughing mr burns gets

flop sweat he'll die of dehydration oh Oh, I'm drenched with sweat. I'm going to take a bath-iola. When I come back, you'd better be laughing. This stuff can make anything funny. Even that show that follows Friends. But I promised my family I wouldn't smoke it anymore.

Well, I gotta do something. Start inhalin' wailin'. I promised my family I wouldn't smoke it anymore. Well, I've got to do something. Start inhaling, whaling. This suit used to belong to Judy Garland. We could sing a song if you don't mind being Mickey Rooney. You mean that guy down 60 Minutes who yells all the time? 60 Minutes? Oh, my God, Mr. Burns has been in the tub for an hour. Ah!

Ah! Oh, Mr. Burns. You were too beautiful for this world. Oh, man. We killed Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns is going to be so mad. The investors meeting is in 20 minutes. So what?

Mr. Burns is dead. We can carry on. Michael Eisner has been dead for five years. Ted Turner is just a hologram. Now, we got to think. Okay. So I have some trivia for you folks out there. They say this can make anything funny, even the show that follows Friends.

I looked into this. The show that followed Friends was the very short-lived show Leap of Faith. It aired its sixth and final episode the week before Weekend at Bernsie's aired. Now, you may be thinking, huge failure, right? No, Leap of Faith got 16.5 million viewers per episode average. But a Friends rerun got 18 million viewers average. So instead of making a new show, they just followed Friends with a Friends rerun. Just more Friends.

Whoa. And got more. Just to the end of the season? I think so, yeah. So, yeah. I saw that joke, too, as not so much a joke on whatever show was airing after Friends, but just that, like, kind of what you're saying, NBC was just, you know, throwing shows together and putting them after Friends and before Seinfeld. And then just like, yeah, you yeah you know there's gonna be any type

of show yeah i mean because of that suddenly susan more people saw that than ever saw game of thrones yes yeah and veronica's closet and all of those shows yeah they all got like 19 million viewers per episode just because people the inertia of friends pushed you into tv was left out yeah you're not going to change the channel to a different show because you'll miss Seinfeld at nine. So yeah. Right. Right. Right.

But it's a great hammock slot. It's a great blanket statement joke too because they could just assume like probably whatever's on friends when we write after friends when we write this

will be gone by the time and replaced with another show. They were right. That's yeah. That's the point. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't think they had enough for leap of faith but it was one of the many interchangeable shows that would still like any show. And they were right. Yeah, that's the point I was trying to make. I don't think they had it out for Leap of Faith, but it was one of the many interchangeable shows. I would still like any show would kill to get that. I don't even know if that Kevin Costner show gets $16.5 million. Oh, Yellowstone? Yeah. I don't think so.

Yellowstone, right. And Henry, do you have the... I just learned how popular that show is. I had no idea. It is huge. Yeah. I was just hearing about Sylvester Stallone is starring in one of the... It's just movie stars are coming to TV to be in the Taylor Sheridan film

or TV franchises. Yeah. Yes. So Yellowstone season five premiere breaks rating records with 12 million viewers. Leap of faith got 4 million more viewers per episode than the biggest show on TV right now. I got killed six episodes in.

Yeah. And Henry, do you have the directgnet info about this oh yeah well you pointed me towards it but yes i i watched the episode as well this is a very dense uh dragnet reference here the thing is you only need to watch the last 30 minutes sorry 30 seconds of that dragnet episode because that's what they're parodying and the entire thing is this couple uh their suspicions that they're they're pot users right and you know joe friday and his pal are investigating them and then at the end of the episode their toddler is dead in the bathtub because they were too busy getting stoned yeah

yeah the the episode is called the big high and it's just all on youtube you can just watch the whole thing if you want and uh for writers like the simpsons writers who grew up with dragnet dragnet being aired around the same time as this version of dragnet this aired in episode aired in 67 it aired around the same time as the batman adam west show and both have this same level of camp but the fun of dragnet especially to you know boomer and xr tv nerds was it was so deadly serious like that episode is about a huge guilt trip to say no to pot but they are so wrong about pot and so like stupid with it that it comes back around again to be campy and dumb yeah we don't laugh at it we didn't know when nick at night was showing dragnet that adults were watching it ironically yes no yeah. So, yeah, the episode itself, yeah, it's the price paid by, there's a couple who has, like, a baby.

And they are very cavalier of, like, maybe we do smoke grass, man. What you going to do about it, Drebin? They don't care. Like, they're flouting the laws. Is Drebin the naked gun guy? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Not Drebin.

Anyway. But Jack Webb. Friday? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Not Drebin. Anyway, but Jack Webb. Friday, yeah. So Jack Webb keeps telling them, like, you guys, you're going to be in trouble. So then the episode ends with them going to their house, and they're like, hey, where's the baby? Uh, uh, uh. And in a very serious scene, they take a dead body of a child out of the bathtub, the bathtub and they sob over it that's what's happening here with smithers it's pretty almost shot for shot of smithers pulling the body out

of the oh interesting yeah uh and the baby scoots across like shoots out of his well that doesn't i see that should have happened and i i saw this live and they were a fan of just killing mr burns in this era uh He dies a lot. Earlier in this season, I think, when he had his girlfriend, during a montage of him being romantic, he does die. That's right. And comes back. And I was a little annoyed by the Weekend at Bernie stuff,

because at that point, the movie was 13 years old, and they're also kind of playing with a corpse of a character I enjoy. But now i appreciate the audacity of this choice yeah i'm just saying like yep mr burns is dead from now on this is your last time seeing mr burns he's dead there's blood leaking from his head uh i also like on the commentary they seem to think it goes too far as like a gay joke but me as a gay person speaking for all gay men is uh obviously i represent all of them but i i like you know gay dudes like smithers and stuff don't get to be stoned that much they don't get to be high and

gay guys can be just as high as straight guys and i love that when smithers gets high he dresses up like judy garland i like that yeah that's i like that detail i like that his version of getting high isn't tie-dye and just like a stoner guy thing like he he wears whatever the costume that he's uh that he's got on hand which i like he's finally relaxed enough to do his routine of judy garland like late in life judy garland too which is why as a garland fan maddie says he's gonna do a duet with homer as mickey rooney because obviously judy garland only did that in early years in her career, in her childhood years. By the time she was wearing an outfit like

Smithers is wearing, she was really doing duets with like Perry Como and Bobby Darin. I see. I think on the commentary, not to go too deep into this, they said the original joke was him wearing like a gown or a dress. Oh, okay. And they thought that was too far and maybe a bit insulting. Yeah, okay.

I can see that. Maybe the joke will also... When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. We care about you. We care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part visit dejauden.com care and get insurance that's really big on care did i mention that we care

if this is this is later judy garland like that's her costume in later years that's when she was a drug addict right oh that's true yeah yeah. Yeah, so it's like, like I was saying with it, not her, not the, you know, his version of a drug addict is Judy Garland, whereas Homer's is like the fish or whatever. Well, sorry, I had one last thing to say

about that Dragnet episode too is that it's just funny. Bob has mentioned this other times when we bring up Dragnet, the creator and star of the show, Jack Webb, a huge drunk like and i just i like to imagine him doing this episode about making pothead heads feel like you're so irresponsible you'd let a baby drown and he's probably driving home drunk like every night

from work like with no seatbelt on sure but okay cs they've killed mr burns we have a joke about ted turner michael eisner being holograms and not not alive which uh both are still with us right now even so the this joke that they're dead uh but then we get another thing that i was like oh wow this was just in the news bill clinton giving a speech for a bunch of money uh because he was just in the news about crypto with that yes he was just at the uh earlier in 2022 he was at in the news about crypto with that. Yes, he was just at the earlier 2022. He was at the Crypto Bahamas conference with Sam Bankman Freed. And yeah, he shows up just to give legitimacy to fraudulent activities, basically.

Yeah, him and Tony Blair are both there. It's funny. This was the one that just like imploded. And they're like, no, billions are just gone now it's just gone and phil but uh months beforehand bill clinton was there just like he is here giving a speech for a bunch of money though i like how bill clinton shows off his fox attitude with his hip shakes that's pretty good yeah yeah okay but now we come to the weekend at bernie stuff and this is another reason i wanted to have Mike on here. Mike, you are the star of one of the best, I'd say the best comedy parody of Weekend at Bernie's I have ever seen. The Weekend at Ernie's sketch in the birthday.

Yes. What a nice title that is, Weekend at Ernie's. It's one letter different. I was slamming this for being a dated parody, but you guys reinvented the Weekend at Bernie's parody. So I will give you credit. We just watched the sketch before we sat down to record and we were laughing a lot. I should have watched it before we sat down. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad you guys

liked that. That was a fun sketch. That came out of the live show. We did that live. And it's always so fun to do because it's such a fun stage picture. Those who haven't seen it, it's basically Jeff and I set up a Weekend at Bernie's style thing. And then where we have to get our uncle to sign. This lawyer is coming in.

We have to get our uncle, who's dead, to sign something to make sure his beach house isn't going to take away. But then Jeff dies, so I have to puppet Jeff, who then puppets the dead Ernie. So at one point, we're all doing a conga line, and I'm puppeting all of them. It's all very funny. And by the end, to ruin the sketch for you, even the lawyer, he dies, and then I have to puppet the whole scene.

You acted all out. I think I saw it on stage at one of your Sketch Fest shows. Oh, nice. It was great. I noticed Mitch really takes it easy in that sketch, though. beginning yeah yeah yeah he's the corpse well how i mean is that easy well you you're the only guy in the sketch who doesn't die but for your your co-workers was it hard for them to keep the dead face on the whole time when you're you know moving them around a little bit it kind of probably for the first couple times we rehearsed it it was difficult but then it what we like jeff and i have a kind of a lot of choreographed stuff going on uh so he

kind of has to like i think i put sunglasses on everywhere if you're dead in the scene you have sunglasses on so i put sunglasses on him so he can probably open his eyes and see what's going on but um but i don't think he did i think he actually played with his eyes closed but we would you know there are some parts where i he kind of like moves his arm as if he's dead as I just like touch it, you know, because for me to actually do the stuff to these guys, it would take, be impossible. I couldn't pick them up and do it. It'd be exhausting.

Yeah. But yeah, I love that. It's getting everybody, it's in the last episode of season two of the Birthday Boys, if you guys want to watch it, which is, it's on, well, it's on pluto yeah it's on my dvds come over come over bob's house enjoy enjoy some legal marijuana and watch birthday boys these guys are all so high yeah how stoned were you when you wrote that one mike i was oh my god i was i was just getting into uh daily lsd dose but uh so yes it becomes a full-on weekend at bernie's except they're not

like hugging him and standing next to him the whole time they just turn him into a marionette and uh instead of having the dead bernie face have fish hooks. Yes, lifting his face around. Lifting his mouth. I love the way the fish hooks, especially the one, they basically taped a fish hook to his bald front of his head just to move it around. But yes, Homer helps Burns with the presentation. And now a man you will see is definitely not dead, Mr. Montgomery Burns.

Mr. Burns, as we're running long, may we skip your speech and go directly to the questions? Mr. Burns, a two-part question. One, when will you see a prophet again? And two, what's that red stuff coming out of your ear? Mr. Burns, may I feel that one? It's true we're losing money. But there's no reason we can't dance, dance, dance the night away. And then Burns does a very long dance routine

that involves him. Which jostles his heart every which-a-way. And it crashes him to the ground too with seemingly his legs are backwards, like his spine has been fully broken. I do, I mean, I think this is very funny now it annoyed me when

i was watching this uh 21 years ago but i love when the curtains close on burns and homer has to kick his head back under the curtain yes yeah his dead-eyed face as he just shoves it back out now what's that red stuff coming out of your ears as dr nick says john vd is credited in another episode with that same line uh in season seven's premiere home sweet home diddly dumb doodly the season seven production just to be clear uh todd asked that after watching the uh the itchy and scratchy like what's the red stuff coming out of kitty's ears that's just raspberry jam i'm sure it's ned but but yeah i though i feel like at this point and definitely now elvis has left the building jokes like, that's dead.

Nobody does those jokes anymore. I see. I'd even read it as that, but you're totally right. Yeah. I assume no one would ever do this. I just went to it out, John, one of his final concerts, his last one in San Francisco. Did you go to the LA one or a New York one? No, no.

I've never seen it seen but i kind of was just realizing that they were his or hearing that they were his last ones those would be fun ones well you know if you he's got still i'd say hundreds more he's doing internationally it's just his last ones in america so if you want to fly to europe to see i don't think we've seen the last of reginald dwight but everyone uh but they didn't need to tell us he left the building from where we were sitting uh the way his show ends it's really it's really crazy because he finishes yellow brick road and then he gets on basically a little elevator that takes him up and he just is waving to everybody like well i'm going to heaven now pretty much and then once he goes behind the curtain after going

up the elevator then on the big screen is a video of just like him in heaven pretty much i was like well this is simulating his death but then from where we were sitting we could see behind the stage and there's like this luxury suv waiting for him and he instantly got right in it like he the car it drives away before the video's over there will be no encore perfect that is the best I've heard the same thing with Billy Joel when he does his MSG shows

somebody who I know works there was saying like he's done he's in a limousine and he's gone he's out of there you got your two hours you heard it you're not getting any extra. God, imagine being so long into your career of performing in front of huge audiences that even when you're done, there's not a moment.

Because I imagine when you're done with a show, when I'm done with a show, you're backstage a little bit just like, wow, that was really fun. Or you're just talking to people. You're just so over it that you're in a car. Like, that car is waiting for me right now that car better be like on and then oh and if it's not somebody's never gonna work again but but it was a great show there used the you can see the video uh the it's on disney plus the the last la concert, yes, yes. Cool. Which I heard our mutual pal Mike Carlson went to. Carlson. Yeah.

He had a good time. Oh, nice. But yeah, so after all of this, we get a mullified ending here. Mr. Burns has left the building. We are mullified. We are mullified. Mullified. Brilliant.

We lost $60 million and they're cheering for more. Mr. Burns, you're alive. Yes, I regained consciousness during my big dance number. Those strings pulling me every which way jostled my heart from its slumber. And you wanted to take him to the hospital. Oh, and you didn't? Well, the worm has finally shown its fangs. Smithers, make me slap him. You call that a slap? Oh, and you didn't? Well, the worm has finally shown its fangs. Smithers, make me slap him. You call that a slap?

Make me slap you. Now both. Now just you. Now give me a kiss. I like this. Now both again. Now all three. Excellent. That's what he was finally going after.

All three. Excellent. A call back to the three stooges. Yes. Yeah, actually. Yeah. Yeah, right. That's a very silly ending.

After all of this pot stuff, all of the political implications of pot, and on top of Homer having a collection of crow friends, that they just ends with like 20 seconds of just slapping. Just like a bunch of slapping with no soundtrack behind it but yeah i feel like these later simpsons they really they need to just kind of wrap up episodes pretty quickly yes yeah like they have these big huge moments you know the billionaire of town is dancing he's dead and he comes back to life and then this episode's over and it's like we got to get out of here, guys.

They kind of explain what happened and then they slam the door on you. Just a silly thing of like, you know, my heart started again while you made me dance. There, I'm not dead. Even though blood was leaking out of my ears and I clearly was drowned. Yeah, he was just a corpse.

And he's back alive and he's also able to be kind of funny by slapping, making people slap mr mr burns is is unkillable it's true i and then my last thought on the episode in order is just i feel like they had the fish bit of them playing a little bit of the theme in an episode lots of guest uh musicians they will do a version of the theme for the ending but this doesn't have it and i wonder if uh if this was because the hiatus timing maybe they just weren't playing anything together at the time and they oh yeah maybe because that's interesting because yeah this would have been like probably yeah uh isn't

doesn't take like a year before they they write it and it takes a year to like the edit or uh the timeline as best i can guess is based on on the Fish.com news story on it. So they teased it in October of 2001. And in the article, they said that the guys had been recording it over the last couple months, which implies to me that they were not all together recording it. And it was just somewhere in town and they recorded it and things. But it definitely was like eight months ahead of time but yeah it's either that or they bought too many licensed songs and couldn't afford another one they couldn't pay fish to do it i could see that too

yeah but uh i that's what's just missing here i wish fish got to have an an outro to the simpsons episode but right because they do sort of just show up yeah they show up very briefly just as sort of like uh hey we got these guys. Okay. They have nothing really to do with the plot. They're just here. They get out of town. Yeah. I, well, I do wonder if there was, you know, some question in the room of like, how famous is fish? Like, cause they had, you know, you two on or all these very big bands, all the living Beatles, every living beetle. Yeah, yeah. So I wonder.

Oh, that's a good point. I'm sure in 2002, especially on a hiatus, I'm sure nobody knew who they were. The fans would. Yeah, hey, it was pleasing for all the fans who visited fish.com and learned about it. I guess my final thoughts are the weed stuff is a fun time capsule

with a few okay jokes, but I'm really here for act three uh burns the burn story is great and i have come to terms with the the corpse play and i think it's very funny now yeah oh nice i i've grown i thought the burn yeah as a youth uh as a teen uh late teen when this came out i i did think the burns stuff was a little, like, corny. Like, everybody does a weekend at Bernie's thing back then. But I grew to, now I really like it. And now that I know the Dragnet reference,

I kind of like it more too. And, yeah, the pot stuff really does, like, just lock it in time for, compared to now, it's just like, wow, 20 years, a whole lot has changed with it and and also you know homer with his crows it's it's cute and now that i know it comes from real fox studio crows that carolyn omine has been feeding uh so i i just uh one more thanks to carolyn omine for uh the executive producer gave us tons of uh extra stories i like her even more

now that she likes crows. Any final thoughts on this one, Mike? My final thought is Simpsons is a fantastic show and it's fun to see some fun. They're having fun. I don't know. I enjoyed it. It did make me want to watch through this season again because as I was searching for it, I was like, oh, I kind of remember that. I don't remember like this episode.

Like I remember where it starts and I don't remember where it goes. So I'm going to kind of put that as my eating lunch, eating lunch show for a little while. Season 13 still has some good episodes and they're not as memorized as a season five or six one. They'll surprise you. But thanks for joining us, Mike. Please let us know where to find you online and more about the Sloppy Boys and anything else you might Yes, yes. Right, right. But thanks for joining us, Mike. Please let us know where to find you online and more about the Sloppy Boys and anything else

you might want to promote. You find me at Mike Hanford on Twitter and Instagram. I have a TikTok. I forget what that's called and I don't post much on it. But we got the Sloppy Boys as well. That's our podcast

that comes out every week. We have a Patreon where you can get extra episodes per week. And we're going to be going on, this comes out when? December 14th? Yeah, yeah. We will be on tour next spring.

We're doing a two-week Midwest tour. Awesome, awesome. Yeah, and that is not, we're not doing podcast tour, we're doing the band. Right, I have to say I'm so sad when you guys did your California tour because me and bob missed you perfectly like you guys oh you guys i flew down to la like right as you guys were fitting it finishing in long beach and then when you came up to oakland i wasn't in oakland and then when you

went to vancouver bob and his wife were not in vancouver when they normally are i'm starting to take it personally uh we We missed you guys entirely. Oh, that's next. We'll get you next time. Actually, you know what? We're playing in LA at some point in January. January 26th. That's awesome. Oh, that Oakland show

too was not one to miss. That was a barn burner. Oh, man. You're just rubbing it in now. I know. No, the Sloppy Boys are a fun time, and the podcast is great. I also oh man you're just rubbing it in now I know no the sloppy boys are they are a fun time and the podcast is great I also really love the bonus stuff I always look forward

to the monthly I guess another one's coming pretty soon of a new questions for Lennon at the time of this recording obviously the December one's out when you're listening to this but yes but every month we do a new questions for Lennon this month is Clara Kane was the guest. Oh, awesome.

I can't wait to hear it. But thank you so much, Mike. This is always a ton of fun. Yes. Thanks a lot, Mike. Thanks for having me. I'm glad we got the schedule to work and we did it up. Thanks again to Mike Hanford for being on the show.

Please check out the Sloppy Boys, either the podcast or, hey, check out their tour coming up in the Midwest. But as for us, if you want to check out more of what we do and get these episodes one week ahead of time and ad-free, please go to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. For five bucks a month, you can get just that, but also access to our vast, vast catalog

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cool stuff and if you want to find an easy to follow list of all our previously released free episodes of podcasts head on over to talking simpsons podcast.com thanks so much for joining us folks we'll see you again next time for season three's bart the lover and we'll see you then Thank you. Yeah, I did it! Marge is in the house! I will be soon, because it needs some cleaning!