Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - When You Dish Upon A Star With Nick Wiger, Heather Anne Campbell, and Matt Apodaca

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

Talking Simpsons headed to Hollywood for this star-studded episode, and we got the help of the hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Played?, Nick Wiger, Heather Anne Campbell, and Matt Apodaca! They give us the star scoop on muffin baskets, The Gersh Agency, writing for Ed Begley Jr., going parasailing, and so much more in this glamorous podcast! Listen now to bask in their reflected glory! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! This podcast is brought to you by the streaming network VRV: home to cartoons, anime, and so much more! Visit VRV.co/WAC to sign up for your FREE 30-day trial and kick a little money back to your friends at the Talking Simpsons Network!

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It's real easy, man. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we promise the most Gersh Agency jokes per minute. I'm your host, killer robot driving instructor Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Henry Gilbert is looking out for Henry Gilbert. Who else do we have?

Matt Apodaca. Hey. And who else? Nick Weiger. Simpsons reference. And finally, who do we have? Hi, I'm Heather Ann Campbell, and I don't need a reference to say hello to everybody. Today's episode is When You Dish Upon a Star.

Hey, here come the Simpsons. Now be careful, Homer. There's a fella in the sand right in front of you. Ow! Today's episode aired on November 8th, 1998, and as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real-world history. Oh, my God!

Oh, boy, Bobby. John Glenn returns to Earth from his historic space flight. The Waterboy skiddly-oos into the top of the box office. And you better believe that Cher released a new Euro disco album in record stores this week. Wait, who did? Cher. Oh, Cher. Oh, I see.

I see. You kind of did a hard CH. Kind of Cher. Oh, sorry. Different celebrity. It sounded like a Europe band, kind of chair. Oh, sorry. Different celebrity. It sounded like a Europe band, though. The band is called Chair.

I thought that was like a European supergroup, yeah. Hello, we are Chair. That was Autotune's time to shine, I guess. The one time. It was his big debut of Autotune, yeah. Yeah, John Glenn, they just had a joke about John Glenn going to space, like Lisa the Simpson, and so now he's back, safe and sound. At age like 83 or something?

Something like that. Something like that. The oldest man in space. That was a fun stunt. I remember that. When George Bush was jumping out of a plane, John Glenn was going into space. Right. Proving elderly people can do it. The Waterboy was like his 17th, Adam Sandler's like 17th hit in a row.

Just, yeah. Just batting a thousand Sandler at this point. Oh, hey. But the next movie would not be a silly voice baby man movie. Wait, he'd be a baby man in Big Daddy, but normal voice baby man. Wasn't Little Nicky next? I think it went Big Daddy, then Little Nicky. So Big then Little.

That's when he flew too close to the sun. Yeah. Is there a talking Sandler plot pod? I don't know. That's when he flew too close to the sun. Is there a Talkin' Sandler pod? I don't know, that's my thing. I mean, I stand the Sandman. You gotta make this happen, Matt. There's too many podcasts.

Sandstan. I think you got the title right there. Sandler was on SNL the day you were born, right? I think so. I was born in Oh, wow. I was born in Studio 8H. So today's special guests are actual funny people.

It's a real treat for our listeners. The hosts of How Did This Get Played, everybody. That's us. That's us. That's us. Welcome. And we're all the way in Hollywood recording this, too, for such a Hollywood episode of The Simpsons. The heart of Hollywood.

Wow. Yeah, that's true. Netflix is across the street. Let's go start a fight with them. Let's pitch after this. Okay. Oh, we've got to pitch. I feel like we could get that buddy cop pie movie sold.

Yeah, yeah. That's coming to Netflix very soon. Probably starring Adam Sandler. It's better than Brights, I think. More believable. But also written by Max Landis. Oh no. Oh no.

Oh no. Thanks so much for coming on. You guys just launched your brand new podcast, right? It's a new show. Yeah. We're starting out. We play terrible video games

and then talk about them. Bad video games. You can watch us or listen to us get demoralized in real time over the course of the episodes. We're punishing ourselves. On the Superman 64 one, you guys seemed to really be regretting the choice. And that was the second one. That was episode two. And we were like, this is a mess.

I can't believe we imposed this premise upon ourselves. You kind of started with the Troll 2 of bad video games. Right. It's one of the worst. We started with Sonic 06 was our very first episode, and then we went to Superman 64. So, yeah, we hit some big, big, really well-known, terrible games early on.

But we're also going to, we're testing, like, kind of the limits of what the premise is exactly. We're doing some weirder games. Yeah. Some ones that are maybe more modern and aren't as well known. We've got this episode coming up, or maybe it will be out by the time this releases, Vroom in the Night Sky, which came out for Nintendo Switch like last year and is fucking abysmal. But it's kind of like an under the radar awful game.

Yeah. But it's really, really uniquely terrible. There are so many bad games now that there are less famous bad games. Would you guys believe that there are more bad games than good ones? Now you're being crazy. No, I mean, it's just an observation I had. I don't know, just a theory. Are you on uppers, Nick?

You're never this lively on our podcast. Well, what's everybody's history with The Simpsons? I'm curious about that, too. Oh, boy. I think that Matt and I should start and then Heather should finish. I will say that I was a huge Simpsons fan growing up. My favorite show. Loved it.

I would say The Simpsons and Conan, chiefly, were the things that made me want to get into comedy. And I didn't. But I just like love the the absurdity and the and just like just how how dense and joke packed the the Simpsons that hit my hit my teen years. And I was 10 years old in 1990. So like like the 90s, basically the the prime Simpsons years kind of followed my teen years. And was 10 years old in 1990. So like, like the nineties, basically the, the prime Simpsons years kind of followed my teen years. And so like, you know, that seasons three through eight were hitting me ages 12 through 17, basically. So that was like how I kind of developed my sense of humor and what I thought was funny. So like, I love the Simpsons. It did. The show means a lot to me. I continued watching it past what's what are considered its prime years.

I still like check it out from time to time and I enjoy the show and I consider myself a huge fan. Matt, how about you? I so I started watching it when I was like too young to watch it. I was probably like seven or eight when I discovered it on my own, just like flipping through the channels or I might have been watching a show and like it came on after or something. It was a problem with my grandparents. My grandparents were very mad at my I i'm gonna bring her up my cool young mom uh and she was letting us watch it and i didn't get a lot of the jokes i was just like distracted by like bright colors and like an occasional joke that i understood but as i got older i did like start to appreciate like the references that were being made and like the jokes i mean just and the characters and i have a tattoo i have the moth tattoo and i i've been i stopped watching it

probably when i was like 15 or something so i had a solid run between like 90 97 98 uh until like 20 like uh what's i mean 2015 i guess i don't really watch it anymore but i with the app with the simpsons app simpsons world on fx app i'll just like throw it on and now just like have it mindlessly on in the background and i've seen newer ones that i'm like i can't believe that that's an episode there's like an episode so good right i mean there's one that i saw that was like they had to sneak back into springfield because they were kicked out and they were wearing masks of other people from the town. And that'd be like if I had a mask of you.

Like, it'd be so weird. I'd be flattered if you did that. I'd go to jail where I belong. I don't trust that guy. So the tattoo you have, you have the moth from the Simpsons pilot. It's not actually the pilot. It's from the Christmas special where Bart gets the tattoo and he's getting the mother and it doesn't get finished.

Your listeners know what this is. That's why I didn't explain it. I'm Simpsons-plaining to people who know more than me. That's a fascinating tattoo because it's a tattoo in the world of the reality of the Simpsons and then you have it in the real world. I'm trying to think of what the other ones are.

Like tattoos that people wear in The Simpsons. That people have in The Simpsons. The Mad Magazine Fold-In Tattoo. Oh, yeah, that's one. And chains, yeah. There's also the Bart V. Yeah, there's snakes tattoos, I guess. The Hellfish Tattoo.

Oh, yeah, that's a badass one. I've seen lots of those. I've seen a lot of gibberish. Oh, that'd be such a cool one. This is not an in-world tattoo, but I've seen a tattoo of Bart sucking his own dick. Wow. That's impressive, too.

That's from Simpsons Califragilistic. Well, then, Heather, you have a different perspective. So I just found out in this moment that that tattoo was a Simpsons tattoo. I was not a Simpsons kid. I didn't watch the Simpsons growing up. I didn't want to be in comedy. I only liked action movies and horror films. Like, I just wasn't attracted to it.

I would say I was more of a South Park kid, if anything. Bad kid. I'm sorry? You're a bad kid. A bad kid. Only bad kids watch. But I really liked the blues and jazz so I got the Simpsons Sing the Blues album because I was like, oh, this is a thing that my friends and I

can talk about and nobody wanted to talk about the album. So that was my big... That and the arcade game, which I played like rabidly, were my big Simpsons. Who was your go-to character to play as in the arcade game?

Bart, although I really do like the animation, the walk cycle on March. She's really, really nice. For this recording, I'm wearing a reference to that game. It's the second to last boss, Smithers with the bombs.

It's not canon at all. He never did that. He was never a the bombs. It's not canon at all. He never did that. He was never a jewel thief. He's not a domestic terrorist. No, they never. At this point, they could explore that avenue with Smithers, but they haven't yet. So the episode we watched for this was in my, like, maybe double digits of Simpsons episodes I've ever seen. Like, I would guess less than 20.

Wow. Yeah. What did you guys think of, like, this Hollywood insider view of the show in this episode? Like, you guys as, you know, Hollywood professionals. Let me just say that Matt and I were talking about this before the episode a little bit. This is one where The Simpsons used to not have a lot of, like, jokes that will play in the writer's room. Like, jokes that are kind of, like like a joke about the Gersh agency, which actually that one I think kind of carries because it kind of carries out a side that's so circles because it's

just so such a weird specific. But I mean, some of the other stuff that like some of those variety kind of jokes are like jokes to make people in L.A. laugh. And I feel like the show didn't used to do that as much. And this is one of the earlier episodes where they did do a lot of that stuff. Do we know if Entourage was on the air when this episode was out? Because I feel like Entourage would have really helped people. The only time Entourage would have ever helped anyone would be to understand this episode.

I feel like if you were watching Lovitz's The Critic, you would have gotten more of these jokes. Probably, yeah. This was very inside for then. But yeah, like a post-Entourage world where everybody knows everything. Yeah. critic you would have gotten more of these jokes right sure this was very inside for then but yeah like a post-entourage world where everybody knows everything yeah yeah it uh it doesn't feel all that like inside now i know every reference in it now i felt like it was laying a foundation for coastal elitism because like it really talks about like like, Homer calls himself a nobody compared to celebrities. And I was like, I mean, Homer's like my dad.

Like, my dad would never call himself a nobody in comparison to a celebrity. And knowing that the show is written by the coastal elite and, like, the Harvard kids, I would be like, hey, but I'm Homer. You know, like, if I was a regular person. Does that make sense? No, absolutely. I would be like, hey, but I'm Homer. You know, like if I was a regular person. Does that make sense? No, absolutely. I was thinking about it, too, that like it felt like a dated perspective on celebrity because like people still really like celebrities and will never stop liking them.

Do they? I don't know. Not in the same way. Not in the same way as like the early aughts or the mid 2000s or the late 90s. I was even surprised that those two were the biggest celebrities that anyone could think of. They were very, very famous at the time. A real big Hollywood power couple.

We mentioned South Park before. This episode aired about a year after that show started. I think it was a real turning point in culture where we started turning on celebrities, where that was a new kind of gimmicky thing to do to be really mean to celebrities on TV celebrities. Yeah, it's good. Do it. I mean, yeah, South Park, in their first season,

did that Barbara Streisand episode that was just shouting at her for her self-importance, which, hey, cool. But yeah, well, it's also funny this comes, you know, compared to the, I was thinking like, what was the other most inside one before this in the series? And I think it was the Troy McClure one. Or like Radioactive Man.

Yeah, sure. Or Poochie. But those all were like, they were especially like Radioactive Man and Troy McClure. Troy McClure is all about how, or A Fish Called Selma is the episode name. Yes. That one's all about how fake and phony celebrities are, how they're way weirder than you even think they are, and how nothing is real. And it's all just to get more popular. But in this, the most normal people are famous people in this. The only crazy people are regular people. Yeah. It's also too, it's, you know, in that episode, there are things like, okay, he's talking to his agent, Mac Parker,

but the Jeff Goldblum character, I got that right, right? Yeah. And the, yeah, I know my Simpsons. You just whipped yourself on your back for getting it right. That's right. I self-flagellate for pleasure when I do something good. So the, like he isn't saying stuff like sides or callback. He isn't throwing out like Hollywood lingo there. He's talking in a way that, okay, this is the way something is cast is accessible to, this is what I know as someone who doesn't know anything about Hollywood.

This is what I think of when I see like a Hollywood power agent talking to a celebrity. It was still like accessible. So, yeah, I don't think there was anything in that radioactive man episode that really approached what this is. Similar to the audition process in Radioactive Man. Oh, I've seen that one. About the comic book? Yeah, yeah. I've seen that one.

No, you're thinking of three men in a comic book. That's a different one. I've seen that one. About the comic book? Yeah, yeah. I've seen that one. No, you're thinking of Three Men and a Comic Book. That's a different one. I've seen one where Bart has a fancy comic book. Yeah, that's true. It's a comic book. They fight in the treehouse.

Oh, well. Yeah. That's a good episode, though. Yeah, I've seen that one. And I think this episode, too, it's Stance on Celebrity comes, I think, at a time when

the PR cycle for celebrities started becoming appear as yourself in something and make some self-deprecating jokes about yourself to show you're normal sure and and that's and there's so much of that in this episode even though like i i giggled at him just straight at the time but now it does feel like uh alec i can feel alec baldwin's manager saying like no do this joke

about your bad movies then people will think you're a normal guy. Right. Like, yeah. He's just fucking pissed off. I also like was, I mean, I don't know how, if this is going to come up again, but like he, I could tell he was like really bored. He seemed so bored. He did not seem like, like Kim was acting and he was like reading.

Ron Howard like killed it in this episode. He's so funny in this episode. Delightful. Where is this in ratio to him calling his daughter a cunt? It was a selfish little pig.

That's what he called her. It was a rude thoughtless little pig. I think about it often because it's bad but it's very funny. That was 07. So this was way

before that and that was I'm sure the only time he's ever done that. Yeah, he's never spoken bad to anybody. No, I mean, he didn't call a camera guy a faggot. I mean, we're also in the post-Shadow girdled up Alec Baldwin, and he is cut from stone in this cartoon.

He used to be a lean guy. Beetlejuice era, he was lean. We're in the late 90s now. Wait, so 98, he was starting to thicken out a little bit well if you've seen shadow which that was like four years before this he has a girdle on like in the entire movie like he's his costume is a very high cummerbund at most times what a dork i i shouldn't judge his looks i'm just saying that but i'll do it that guy's a dork but they but they this did come at a weird time for Kim and Alec too,

because Kim was right on the rise again. This was her big comeback year. She'd won an Oscar like six months before this episode aired. Wow. They were making all these appearances and he was just like, oh, I love my wife. I'm so happy for my wife, which I felt like the, there's a joke in this episode about how jealousy is that he doesn't

have an Oscar that feels realer than not to me. This is almost like the eyes wide shut of the Simpsons. Like it's a very it's a real world couple like working out their real world stuff on cartoon. Yeah. And also Harvey Keitel was originally in the episode is the Ron Howard part, but he got fired for jacking off on set. Is that true? That was like the Sidney Pollack part was originally Harvey Keitel and allegedly he jacked off on set. I had no clue. Wow.

I mean, at least that's what I read in any cool in like 1999. That's gotta be true. It's true. I'm sure it's true. Doing research for this, I had no idea his divorce was so bad. He wrote a book about how he was actually right.

And there's a quote in there about how he was, quote, trapped in the divorce matrix. He really is. In 2008, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty frightening. Wait, what does that mean?

I'm sure the book is available at any, like, Markdown bookseller. I'm not going to read it. Yeah. Tell me what it means. It means he had yet to take the red pill. Exactly. And then when he took the red pill, he saw the truth. No, I mean.

Then he got married three more times. Just once to a yoga instructor only 30 years his junior but that's a real second wife la kind of deal uh but well yeah no his book was like he divorced kim like three years after this episode came out and then by 07 i think the divorce was finally finalized he's like it's time to tell my side of the story in a big time book all about how the divorce industry is doing me wrong and my poor wife didn't know any better yeah he also he kind of writes her as like this country bumpkin that got tricked by lawyers to sue him that's so funny you know what a likable guy that's making me think of because that you know the egos are

definitely a thing with the at least at least with kim and alec or probably probably primarily with alec. So there's going to be an ego issue going on here. And I wonder, having been involved in a lot of bits that have celebrities in them where there's so much back and forth to make sure that nobody is offended, I wonder what the exact line count is and the word count is of all these characters. Because I would bet that it's very close to one-to-one. It's very, very close to every one of these guest stars.

They all have the same number of lines. And in the credits, they're all listed alphabetically, too, which feels like a sidestepping, any kind of top billing situation. What a nightmare. I was a little kid when they were married and then got a divorce, but I remember that being headline news that their marriage was falling apart. And it was like a really nasty divorce. Oh, yeah. Every generation has that. Mine was Bert and Lonnie. I'm so sad they didn't work it out. Another famously happy couple was going to be the initial guest on the show. So it was going to be

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. Whoa. And this show was originally written to get Bruce Springsteen on the show, which was the showrunner's dream to have him on the show. He still has not done The Simpsons. Mike Scully's favorite music, like Mike Scully in his years, he's he a big thing he did was get a ton of guest stars, like more. I think more guest stars in his seasons than any other. And like he wrote the episode where Homer goes to rock star camp and it's like every famous musician from 1960 to 1980. Except Bruce Springsteen. Except Bruce Springsteen, who just doesn't do, I think he just doesn't do comedies.

I don't know. He waved at me one time. I saw him pulling out of, when I worked at the improv over on Melrose, he was pulling out of Fred Siegel. And I was like, that's Bruce Springsteen. It was immediately him. And I was waving at him with my friend and he'd wave back to us. That's the story.

That's really nice. That's amazing. In The Simpsons, because I'm not, do celebrities generally play themselves? Well, this is kind of a change in that now,

actually, the approach. This time in the series. It happened before, but this is the start of it happening more regularly. Before, they would

play characters, usually. James Woods working the Quickie Mart in season five was like one of the first times where just the celebrity is here here people know who he is and he is in the movie business

yeah and I guess the the Krusty Comeback special that was one where they had a bunch of celebrities all as themselves but there weren't a lot of it oh George Harrison I guess but that's like a real brief thing not to bring up Entourage again so I've seen every episode of Entourage and we're just

talking about Hollywood something about it i know uh and jesus christ and i've also i've seen the movie uh but like i've noticed that there are like when uh when an actor plays themselves on entourage it's like a very it's that's like a pat on the back that's like well we want you to be yourself on here but if an actor like a famous person plays a character on entourage i'm always like oh that sucks well like on the simpsons i think it's cooler to play a character for sure no i think so too yeah i i remember an entourage think well when a famous person plays not themselves like when martin landau plays the guy who owns the rights to the ramones movie i was like who are you representing who wouldn't do the show right well like billy bob thornton is in the movie as not himself.

And I'm like, that sucks. That really sucks. I really liked the foreshadowing of Homer saying to Marge in this episode, you could never open a movie. And then years later, she did. Wow. That's not nice. I love that. This is also like the guest stars at Pre-Sages.

Like Alec Baldwin is now. He does a ton of voiceover stuff. He's the boss baby. He is also like the guest stars. It presages like Alec Baldwin is now. He does a ton of voiceover stuff. He's the boss baby. He is the boss baby. He does so many appearances that are self-deprecating. I think that's part of his brand. A joke per episode on 30 Rock even. And speaking about the South Park guys, for Team America, you know, Alec Baldwin is a

villain in that movie. Right. He apparently did campaign for like, come on, guys, hire me. I'll read whatever you want. Like, I'll just have me play myself. But they explicitly did not want to do it. They didn't want to play along with Alec for the movie. They're doing a Comedy Central roast of him.

He loves getting skewered, apparently. I think he gets off on it. That's my guess. I think he's sick. God. And also this was when Ron Howard and Brian Grazer were transitioning into more television production with Imagine Entertainment as well. Whoa. But yeah, this does come at a weird time in celebrity culture, I think, too.

Yeah. I mean, Ron Howard has done nothing wrong except for make boring movies, but he is the best part of this episode, I think. Absolutely. He's great. He's a delight. You don't like that Formula One movie he made that I can't even think of the name of?

Rush. Rush, yeah. I'm not ringing the bell. But we all remember Han Solo, the most memorable Star Wars film ever. It was a Star Wars story. Hey, I liked Han Solo. Me too. I liked Solo a lot, man. Me too. I liked the thick robot. I liked the whole movie. Solo was good.

I'm not saying that it's better than if Howard hadn't directed it. Right. But I am saying that Solo is good and I'll go to the mat for it.

I didn't like Solo but I did like some of the characters. Shut up. I did like some of the character and vehicle design. Shut up. I thought the train was cool.

Shut up. I thought those rebels at the end were cool. Stop it. They explode every good character in that movie. They're like,

here's the good character. Kaboom, they're dead. And Nick, you've liked every train you've ever seen. It is true. Oh, but the making of this episode, though, this was written by Rich Appel, and this is his final episode on the show. Before Family Guy, right?

He first went to King of the Hill, and then to Family Guy. Oh, wow. And he's still co-showrunner on Family Guy. One of the notes that I took, my second note is this opening feels very Family Guy. It is Family Guy's fuck, yeah. Huh. It's really, yeah.

Family Guy is like six months, four months away from premiering when this episode came. Like, so I think this is just the direction things were going in. He's also the writer of Mother Simpson, which has a way different tone. Sure. So he can do all sorts of comedy. The Simpsons will be right back. 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? We're as starstruck as Homer this week. Thanks to our big old guests from the

How Did This Get Played podcast. Thank you so much for recording with us. Nick Weiger, Heather Ann Campbell, and Matt Apodaca. Everybody should check out their brand new podcast. How did this get played? You hear them talk about terrible video games. It's a lot of fun.

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head over to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Yeah, the Ron Howard, I think he's like the best in this. They tell a funny story about how to get him to do the chicken noises. That was like a late addition so they just called him in producing something at universal like okay drive in from universal come here we'll record this and all it was was the chicken noise and they're like we can't just have him do the chicken noise just make up new lines for him just to say that we didn't make him drive all the way across town but yeah why don't we start with the first clip from the episode? Homer's Hanna-Barbera fantasy.

Oh, yes. Hey, part part. Looks like a beautiful day to swipe some picnic baskets. But homie, Ranger Ned's not going to like that. I'll handle Ranger Ned. After all, I'm smarter than the average bear. Well, hello there, ho-diddly-oh-me. Well, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to hand over that pick-

Gee, homie, it's not very nice to maul Ranger Ned. You want some of this? Uh-oh. Dad! Dad! Wake up! Wake up! Oh, I was having the most wonderful dream. I had a hat and a tie with no pants on. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you promised to take us to the lake. I promised you kids lots of things.

That's what makes me such a good father. Actually, keeping promises would make you a good father. No, that would make me a great father. So are we going to the lake or what? Yes, we'll go to the darn lake. Now go back to bed. It's 4 a.m. Oh, 4 a.m.

No, I'll never get back to... Gorilla, gorilla, gorilla for sale. Hey, you should not want to take my banana, Mr. Peebles. I would have loved it if we played the entire 23 minutes. Just sitting back and laughing quietly. Homer's so cute. He's great. I still don't know what Magilla Gorilla is, but I like that whole sequence.

I felt like that was making fun of stuff from like 300 years ago. I was going to say, I don't think that cultural knowledge exists anymore of Hanna-Barbera properties. Where Magilla Gorilla, if you guys have not heard our show before, we go into great detail about all these references, but that was a show about a gorilla that a pet store owner could not sell, because who would buy a gorilla from a pet shop? That's the premise. But it was sponsored by a toy company who would

sell you the gorilla, so you're watching the show, you feel bad for the gorilla, then no one will buy it, but you can buy your own gorilla. It was a huge scam. That's fucked up. It's fucked up. It's worse than G.I. Joe. Yeah, tricking you into feeling bad about a fake thing.

But then again, McGill Gorilla is just an annoying goober. Like, I wouldn't want to own his toy. He's no fun. The premise is,

can you imagine? But all he does, all he does is just tell like lame gorilla puns. That's all. He definitely doesn't tear people apart

as Homer dreams of. Neither did the gorilla in the Ghostbusters. Yeah. Not the real Ghostbusters. The non, yeah. The Ghostbusters. He was,

now he's more of a real Ghostbusters guy. I really, if that one, the Filmation one came on, I was like, this isn't the real

Ghostbusters. It doesn't say it in the title. I was into the Bob Hope Ghostbusters from the 40s. I think the animators did a really good job

on the background to make it look like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Yeah, it looks great. The joke comes pretty obviously. It's like, yeah, Homer's going to tear apart Ned. That's the, you know, that's,

but I like that he dreams that he wants to kill Bart too. Like he dreams that he would threaten to maul Bart as well. Right. Though how often does he like scream like that in his sleep and Marge just sleeps through it? I like that you could hear the echo of the recording booth

in one of those screams. Like he got so far away from the mic that suddenly it sounded like he was in a living room. You can tell Castellaneta really works. Like he works on the mic. Yeah. I saw a clip of him and and harry sheer like improvising as simpsons characters on conan and it was fascinating yeah

it was really really cool i mean those guys are funny that's a hot take for me they're professional improvisers so it's cool to see them like actually do it in character yeah yeah i also like that homer tells such a weird story about also being seemingly turned on by uh walking around with no pants and oh yeah lisa just goes like yeah whatever like she's heard she's heard it enough she she she doesn't want to listen much more to it but i do like that joke strut like that does feel like a classic simpsons joke structure like i was having the most wonderful dream and it's like a you know you think that's referencing what's previously happened but but then it subverts it.

It comes up with this completely different part of the fantasy that was what was appealing to him. And I don't think it's necessarily sexual. It's just like Homer doesn't like pants, right? Yeah, it's about freedom. My favorite thing about comedy is structure. Mine, too. We're on the same page. Structure's all I got.

One of my favorite things about The Simpsons as a family is that they do sort of all really like understand each other. So like I think Lisa was just like, oh, that's one of dad's dreams or whatever. But also when there's

like been times where one of them says something funny and they like genuinely laugh and that just always just like touches me because like or like on Family Guide, they all hate

each other and like hit each other and stuff, which I don't love. But like on the Simpsons, they are at least they have their things that they don't love. But on The Simpsons, they have their things that they don't like or whatever, but they're a very normal, nice family. Yeah, when there's things that feel off the established characters,

it's things like, oh, wait, Homer played a prank on Marge? He's not mean to Marge. He chokes Bart. He wouldn't do it. Lots of love and some strangling. Well, this is jerk ass era Homer yeah

that's true well meanwhile Marge like she is extra domestic in this episode she doesn't really do anything that isn't being a homemaker

in this one when they're stuck in traffic in the next scene and Bart even says like well if we'd left it for him like I did Marge kind of like shirks back in shame

it's like she's even getting like dunked on by Bart. Her whole family is just absolute savages. They just dunk on her constantly. There's a lot more meanness towards moms in this series, in this season, I think. The only Bart dunking I want to see is on a bootleg shirt where he portrays Michael Jordan. In that shirt you can't make now.

Just dunking on Saddam Hussein. Sport our troops, man. And more cartoony than his dream of Yogi Bear is him breaking his neck as he looks. Oh, yeah, that's insane. That made me laugh out loud. It's very funny, but it's like insane. Marge says, Homer, you're spot on.

The glare alone is a great drawing. The intense glare. He literally kills himself. And then he just snaps back into place like, I'm out of here. He kills himself while driving. By looking.

And then Homer decides he's going to take a shortcut instead, drives off of the road into a cornfield. Are we doing a lot of episodes where somebody says so long, suckers? This is the so long, suckers era of the show. Yeah, I thought so. Just in the last episode, Jasper said so long, suckers. And I think when he left the bird meeting.

And now Homer has to say suckers two times in a row. And then Marge finally has to point out, we're saying suckers too much. She's representing some voice of sanity in the writer's room heather just knowing the name jasper and knowing that he said so long suckers what character do you envision i'm sorry well i tuned out i don't know what the fuck anybody's talking about your nose is bleeding so there's a character named jasper yeah and in a previous episode, he said, so long, suckers. That's all the information you have. What are you envisioning? He's a hillbilly.

More of an old coot. Yeah, he's an old coot, but that's pretty good. Coot is a good word for it. Jasper. I mean, what kind of, what? That's true. It is like an older generation name. Is that going to be a mayor?

Oh, yeah. No, I didn't think that. I also, I love, think that I also I love Before we get out Of that corn field Homer eats corn Like a man He bites into it

Like an apple Full calm Yeah the animators I think forgot What biting a piece Of corn looks like Yeah Or he has just

Very strong teeth Homer does He's like a horse Eating it It'd be like Watching like Somebody eat a popsicle And eat stick

Along with popsicle. And carbamate insecticides, they're not hyper deadly. Obviously, don't eat it and don't take a second bite. But they're not going to kill you outright. Homer will probably start drooling a lot and have trouble breathing after this. And this is one of my problems with Homer in this particular era of him, too. He's really, really dumb in ways that era of him too he's really really dumb in ways that don't make sense and also like really really smart in some ways like there's no way you

could know by taste what pesticide it was right yeah that he would know even unless you are such a glutton you've eaten so much unwashed corn there's also a real like mean dad moment of when marge is like there's a tree there he's like i see it moment of when Marge is like, there's a tree there. He's like, I see it. I see it. Like, shut up. It's a weird tone to it there. I think the remember where we park thing is now a running joke because if you type that into Frankie Act, you come up with like at least three scenes. One is the parking on a baseball diamond.

The other one is parking at the Springfield Squid Port. Yeah. And there are like two more where they don't say those exact words, but it's now a running joke. Homer parks where he feels like that is, uh, this is like, yeah,

the fourth time I think he's done it. And though this time on top of dad, which, uh, I feel like I should have just decapitated. Ned is pretty low to the ground. He's got a very distinct muffler though to recognize. Yeah.

Also when they arrived, there's a weird, like I noticed that this time there's a weird, like, I noticed it this time, there's the shot of Skinner giving suntan lotion to Edna, and she's very satisfied by it. It's a weird drawing right there. Then they rent a boat, you trawl. That's clever.

You haul, but trawl. It's a joke, certainly. It's an attempt at a joke yeah I'm on board it rhymes they had to go they had to go home and yeah

they do a bunch of jokes about like water skiing and sky parasailing oh water skiing yeah they terrified me

as a kid and still do I don't think I had the guts to try it now right so I only know from sort of like

vaguely hearing about Apu controversy in the news but since I wasn't a Simpsons person I was like, I don't know what the fuck. Yeah.

Is Apu still on the show or is he out of the show? You mean in this time? Oh, you mean in new episodes now? Yeah, in new episodes now is he still? Because like when he,

when Homer hit the Taj Mahal I kind of gasped. I was like, I was like, oh, that's hit the Taj Mahal, I kind of gasped. I was like, oh, that's what they were talking about. Yeah. Yeah.

There have been worse tapu jokes than that one. But no, I think they pretty much just don't talk about him like that. Yeah. It's not like they exploded him

or say like he moved away, but they just never talk about him. Oh, so he's just not, like you don't see him anymore. Yeah. They've quietly kind of retired him over the past couple of years. Yeah. I think like for the last three or like, you don't see him anymore. Yeah. They've quietly kind of retired him over the past couple of years. I think like for the last three or four years,

they've just done it. Yeah. But I mean, this comparatively we had on our friend to Shivam who, who explained a lot of the context for the stuff that they, they could have tried harder with him, but this, I mean,

they at least like don't have him speaking gibberish like they did in one episode. Yeah. Yeah. But he's a great sand artisan he's got some skills yeah i do like that he takes pride in his work but he's a hard-working man yes i i also like homer almost murders lisa with backing up the boat oh yeah that's weird that was insane they never do that kind of a violence joke with lisa like it for some reason it feels if they did

that bart they did that joke with bart it would have felt totally fine yeah bart's life is in peril constantly but when it's lisa you're like oh no not lisa right if she hadn't tried to if she hadn't drowned herself to get out of the way she would have been ground up yeah she would have got her face chopped off like Like itchy and scratchy. Heather nailed it. Well played. Those are characters. And then Homer

yeah Homer goes parasailing he burns up his feet and even sticks his feet in some watermelon which was a very this whole thing was very like that was also a very family guy too.

It's cartoony but I like that sequence he steps on all the girls with his feet in the watermelon to cool off. They fit perfectly like shoes. That's very funny. That's also very Family Guy too. It's cartoony, but I like that sequence. He steps on all the girls. They fit perfectly like shoes. That's very funny. I don't know how Cletus afforded a watermelon though. Must be a wedding gift.

Or how he can even afford to be at that lake. My favorite joke in that run is, hey volleyball, can I play later? Says it as he trolls through it. My fan theory is that it's a stolen watermelon and I say this

partly because I know my grandfather when he was up to no good rest in peace but as a boy he would steal watermelons

from a nearby farmer oh my god and would get threatened with a shotgun sometimes whoa yeah but that seems like a very

clitasy thing are you a hundred years old that was when the fruit was new right times. Whoa. Yeah, but that seems like a very Cletus-y thing. Are you 100 years old? That was when the fruit was new, right? What is this watered melon? They were for our fighting boys in Civil War, right? Something to cheer them up.

I was surprised at the reality they gave to the motor, like burning, actually giving an excuse to set Homer free. Right. Send him flying. I feel like it could have just like snapped, but I like that there's a little extra reason for it with the motor having to work overtime to even move fast enough to get his hefty carriage up in the air. That's a nice justification. And then in another very cartoony moment, like a straight up Wile E. Coyote moment. Yeah. His parachute gets caught on a tree and he just floats in the air like, oh crap.

He doesn't fall until he notices. It's very Wile E. Coyote. This is also one of the shortest first acts in the series too. They like, and they have a full opening. I think they really wanted to get to Celebrity Town fast. Yeah. It's a short first act,

but also i think the edit point is weird because like it's kind of like you'd want him to i feel like the edit point should be he falls through and you don't see like necessarily where he lands like it's almost like you cut to black on the landing you cut to black on him crashing through the the but like him like kind of crashing through and then you reveal the celebrities beforehand i don't know i guess it's a good tease for what's coming in the next act but you almost like for me i almost wanted a cliffhanger of like wait who's there or is homer dead or is homer dead yeah exactly yeah is this where he dies right but i guess they wanted to go more with the celebs of just like

so here they are alec and kim stick around you know what i more think it is this is i'm gonna amend my note a little bit i think that they like when they kind of almost have a full scene after kim and uh and alec emerge like they kind of have like this whole back and forth and they have like it's almost like you want them to just get like one line of dialogue a piece or just one line of dialogue as a reveal and then we can kind of like cut to black and then come back and resolve it well here let's hear the whole clip of the first appearance of Alec and Kim. Higher, Marge! Higher! I'm going higher! Higher, I say! I want to soar higher than any man has ever soared!

I want to look down on the clouds with contempt! I want to stare at God's creation and spit on it! Lower! Lower! There goes my turn. Oh, this is not good. Oh, nuts. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHLL Oh, already? What the hell?

Sorry, lady. I know you. You're Kim Basinger. It's Basinger. Oh, my God. I'm such a huge, huge fan of yours, Miss Basinger. Listen, you think you could slide over a little? Well, I am a married man. You're crushing my husband. Billy Baldwin!

I'm Alec Baldwin. Could you get off me? So, what are you two kids doing in my neck of the woods? Well... Wait! Tell me over breakfast. Who's for pancakes? He has a weird, like, extra big smile in that last shot, too. It's kind of also, too, like, the score kind of almost makes it feel like we're headed towards a cliffhanger

and then it just kind of keeps going. yeah swells though that fall would kill a man like it also it would have killed alec baldwin too in both cases i think they do remark that he is full of glass yeah yeah well this is his reaction to being told he's full of glass later is very similar to uh him saying he's gonna walk it off after the bridge crushes his head. Like, they just don't really care anymore on his physical well-being. So a couple of jokes in there. There's the alarm goes off, it's 11 a.m., which is like, I guess they're lazy celebrities,

so they sleep in. But Homer, and Matt laughed at it, but Homer immediately, Homer waking up and treating it like it's his normal alarm clock is super duper funny. Yeah. Good joke.

Yeah, he thinks he just woke up from everything else was a dream. It's also, yeah, in this act, Homer wakes up twice. Right. Homer is so horny for Kim basing her the entire episode. He was going to cheat on her. It's weird. But she had just done Cool World, right? Like, she's like

known as like super hot. Especially the cartoon character. Well, I mean, this is straight off L.A. Confidential which was like her, plot of her character in L.A. Confidential is she's older but she's still hot and Russell Crowe is still into this older hot lady.

This 31-year year old woman. I mean, we are like eight, nine years removed from Vicki Vale, I think, when this episode came out. Yeah. So which in Hollywood years means she's a crone. Yeah. But she was very attractive and very like famously fetching in L.A. Confidential. I think that like, but Homer, this is the thing about Homer. And yeah, there've been times where he's been horny in the past, you know, Princess Jasmine, Maude Flanders, and kind of like, I feel like a weird, like semi out of character thing when he gets drunk.

Right. But he's mostly not that horny. And so when he gets horny, especially he loves marge so much it really it really like it irks me it feels like it feels not true to homer right and him being so horny for kim in like almost like in well in a very creepy way it's just like it's it feels out of character smelling her hair was kind of too much yeah yeah for homer who i like there are movies online where you can see him be very horny yeah that's. This is not the first time we have talked about these movies. That's right.

Just came up. Yeah. Well, because we just did their Naked Run episode. Oh, yeah. Right. It made us pontificate about all the Simpsons porn we've all seen on websites we definitely don't visit. But, yeah.

Do I need to leave? No, no. I'm sorry. My theory with the Kim stuff, though, is that Alec Baldwin was more ready to be made fun of. And I think Kim was like, the jokes you can make about me are that I'm hot and you're weird about how hot I am. I think that and her Oscar

are really the only subjects they make fun of her for. It could be, but I wonder if it's also just some fucking nerd ass writers not knowing how to write of like what like how can we make a female character interesting you know like well she's hot let's let's talk about that you know it's like yeah i don't know it could be that how many of the baldwin brothers can everybody in here name we heard billy in there but who are the other two amelio. No, it's Alec, yes. There's two more.

I got Steven, and then there's like an oddball one. It's like, it's not Danny, is it? It is. Wow. What is he, like a mechanic or something? I don't know. He's an actor, too. He's also an actor. Billy Baldwin.

See, I get confused because there's Billy Baldwin, but there's also William Baldwin, but they're the same Baldwin. They are the same. It depends on how he wants to be credited. Yeah. When he's in Biodome, he's Billy Baldwin, but there's also William Baldwin, but they're the same Baldwin. They are the same. It depends on how he wants to be credited. When he's in Biodome, he's Billy. Okay, and so which one is the outspoken right-wing Christian conservative now? That is right, yes.

Oh, wait, it was Stephen Baldwin in Biodome, right? Or is it Billy? Stephen Baldwin's in a Pauly Shore movie. Okay, that's probably it then. Okay, yeah, yeah. But Billy was the one who he appeared in on 30 Rock. That was the last time I've seen Billy Baldwin in anything because he played not himself, but an actor cast to play Jack Donaghy in a movie about the show.

That's pretty good. That's fun. If you guys want to talk for like a half hour about Biosphere 2, which is what Biodome was based on, I can do a half hour of that. Is that the one that Steve Bannon was in charge of? Yes. Oh. Look at you go.

I didn't know this. His eyes are rolled backwards. Is there a dome episode? I mean, the movie is a dome episode, but is there like a Biodome parody in the show? The closest I can remember is Apu brings up, it's no structure I've been to be a geodesic dome. That's the only close biodome reference I can think of.

Right. So after we were talking about the Baldwin brothers and I took to my phone for one second because there was a thing I noticed on Twitter a while ago that Daniel Baldwin, at Daniel Baldwin, one of the primary uses of his Twitter account is that when he wakes up, he just tweets, I'm up. Nightmare.

So if you search for, from Daniel Baldwin, I'm up, you just get pages and pages of this. I'm showing this to you guys now. It's like a self-wellness check. Wow. For the public. Yeah. That's alarming. And I used to retweet it, and then someone said, hey, I think it's possible it's like he's in recovery. Retweet it And then someone said Like hey I think it's possible

It's like It's like he's in recovery And that's like a thing Of like Oh it's another day That's a thing Which I made it Less fun for me

But if it's Whatever it is It is just definitely A quirk of his That if you follow His Twitter account He tweets I'm up

Very regularly Basically every day What was the search field You used there Was it from colon User From colon Daniel Baldwin, I'm up. Okay.

Well, I'm glad he's okay. I just keep on tweeting that, Danny. Keep on tweeting. If it's working for you, keep it up. Then they come back from break. They've cleaned up the glass. And I can't imagine Alec Baldwin actually sweeps up his own broken glass in his, I got to think a maid or something does that. I mean, I'm sure he breaks a lot of glass on his own, but he's never cleaned that shit up.

Well, also, it's interesting here that they don't have no mention of their daughter, Ireland, in this. She was like three when it came out. Seemingly, the characters went on vacation without their child. But we know how he feels about her. Yeah, that's true. Did he even feel that he wanted it? Simply too large to depict on the screen. This little pig.

He wanted her drawn as a pig. Homer gets acquainted with Alec and Kim. Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital, Mr. Simpson? You had an awful lot of glass in you. Oh, I don't want to be a bother. Anyway, what are you two big Hollywood stars doing in good old Springfield? Sometimes we need to get away from

Hollywood. L.A. is just so phony. Well, why didn't you just move to, say, Bethesda? Not phony enough. What we really like here is the privacy. Most people don't even know where Springfield is. Yeah, tell you the truth, I'm not even sure. We're trying to keep a low profile. We don't even go to the supermarket. Yeah, we you the truth, I'm not even sure. We're trying to keep a low profile.

We don't even go to the supermarket. Yeah, we've been living off congratulatory muffin baskets. Blech. Zucchini. Don't just put that back in the basket. I'm gonna eat it later. You shouldn't have to survive on dry, crumbly muffins from... the Gersh Agency.

You should let me do your shopping. I know where I can get you some great muffins. No more muffins. Okay, fine. Are muffin baskets still the thing here? What do people send? You don't eat bread in L.A. You don't do that.

Although if I have gotten a treats basket, it'll be like the artisan cookies or something. Or cupcakes. Cupcakes were a big thing for a time. Cookies are big. But then there's also like the Jane baskets from, is it Jones? Oh, from Sweetly. Jones on 3rd.

Oh, yeah. They have like candy and popcorn and all that shit in it. Yeah, there's a lot of, I mean, edible arrangements are, I think, I mean, that's more of a fuck you. What? I feel like you need an edible arrangements. That's more of a fuck you. What? Who sent you that? That's a bit when someone said all their business is based off of bits. I feel like I've gotten more desserts.

I think people have realized that muffins are not worth the carbs. So if you're going to do something, have it be a true indulgence. Anybody here represented by the Gersh Agency? None of us can be represented by anybody right now. There's a whole WGA conflict. But I will say this.

Gersh, do the right thing. Sign the code of conduct. You're one of the HCA signatories that does not rely on packaging as a substantial part of your revenue. Step up to the plate. Follow in the footsteps of Verve. Sign the code of Verve, sign the code of conduct, Gersh. Do the right thing.

And might I say, don't do anything that Nick just said. Drive the industry into the ground. And if you're listening, I'm not repped by anybody. So hit me up. TGA on blast here. Well, they just got in a,

like two months ago, they got in some trouble for canceling some meeting or something that because one of their agents, somebody they represented. Yeah. They canceled a meeting for them without telling the person and they got in. Boy. They were just like, oh, we're following the code of conduct. That's just what they said. Yeah. It was like retaliatory gesture. Yeah.

Do better to gersh yeah uh well back then though gersh it was like they say it's the sixth largest is that around the right size i think they're in that i mean there's somewhere in the top nine to eleven there's somewhere in that range whoa yikes buddy yeah it's just generally generally how i classify things wait wait i think by the way heather on our podcast we're switching to a nine to eleven That's generally how I classify things. I think, by the way, Heather, on our podcast, we're switching to a 9 to 11 rating points. And me and Bob talked about it beforehand.

We thought at first it was like, oh, does Gersh represent one of the actors in this? And that's why. But apparently it was just the writers wanting to. They thought that they saw a lot of variety that Gersh did more ads of like, we want to thank this person than any other one. Oh, interesting. And then they apparently did get a free muffin basket for putting this joke in the show. They fucking love that shit.

Have you ever written anything for it to get a free thing? I've gotten free. I've not for that explicit purpose, but we have gotten fewer free things as a result of having had things in scripts and had things made on TV. I have 100% mentioned a specific alcohol brand in a pilot so that I would get a bottle of that alcohol. Wow. Yeah. I tweeted at Jolly Rancher when they changed their new slogan to, their new slogan is currently keep on sucking,

which I think is very, very funny. And I tweeted at them that their slogan is very good and that I would love to represent their new slogan with like a t-shirt or a hat or something. He sent me socks and a bunch of Jolly Ranchers. Whoa. That's cool. Can I tell a sponsorship story?

Yeah, sure. You know that Halo Top was reaching out to comedians to like do whatever they wanted, like to promote Halo Top for a while? Yeah. They approached me and were like, hey, would you do tweets for a day about Halo Top? And we'll send you some free ice cream. I was like, fuck yeah, what can I write?

And they're like, literally anything. Anything at all. And I was like, I can write anything? And they were like, yes. So I tweeted a hostage drama where the CEO of Halo Top was executing my family unless I ate ice cream. And the contact person who like got me the gig was like, these are hilarious. Keep going. Great.

But then the Halo, like whoever was above her was like, what the fuck is this? I was like begging. Yeah. Fuck is this? Because I was like begging. I was like just tweeting Halo Top, like at Halo Top, like over and over and over again, in between also saying they've got my kids. And I did not receive any ice cream. And then the account of the person who got me the gig was. 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? Deleted. Oh my God.

So I think they may have lost their job. Oh boy. Well, you gave them a chance to get out of that. You told them like anything, really? And they said, let me have it. And so Homer, after all that muffin talk, he convinces them to hire him as their assistant. I noticed that skylight in your bedroom's broken. Yeah, I'm not sure we need an assistant, Mr. Simpson.

Please, Homer. Come on, if you let me hang around a while, I can do all kinds of stuff for you. Well, we are down to our last roll of toilet paper. And I have been brushing my teeth with hair gel for a week. I suppose we could give it a try. Yeah, you owe me that much. Okay, you're on. But look, nobody knows we're in Springfield, and we want to keep it that way.

Will you promise to keep our secret? Absolutely. If you promise to keep mine. Okay. What is it? I can't read. But you just read that card from the G What is it? I can't read. But you just read that card from the Gersh Agency. I recognize the logo. Homie, are you okay?

We've been looking all over for you, Dad. Where did you land? Nowhere famous. Where'd you get that muffin? Gersh Agency. It sounds like Baldwin and Kim are right up on their mics. The hot mics. And that like Dan Castanella,

is that how you say his name? Castaneda. Oh, close. That he's like on a couch in the other side of the room. Different room tone. He's like, hey, what's going on?

Right. They could have been phoning in, but I mean, Nick earlier was talking about writer's room jokes about how they were doing inside variety stuff. I think the Homer saying he can't read is something pitched hey, what's going on? They could have been phoning in, but I mean, Nick earlier was talking about writer's room jokes about how they were doing inside variety stuff. I think the Homer saying he can't read is something pitched in a room just to get a laugh,

but then it gets into the show because Homer has read plenty of times before. He reads in this episode. He writes an entire script in this episode, but he just says he can't read and then they move on. Right. Yeah, that's what I mean when he's like too dumb. I'm like, I don't believe that

just because I've seen at this point 200 episodes of this show. Yeah, well, the very next scene is him at the Quickie Mart with reading glasses on, reading a list. I mean, it's just a random joke, which is funny in the moment, but you're not supposed to treat it as a reality.

That's just so odd though. He's so dumb, he doesn't know what reading is I think that's the way you justify that he has deep knowledge of talent agencies though of logos well he did just crash through skylight so he is suffering brain damage I mean you can

always chalk any inconsistency in Homer's character up to brain damage you can figure on that but they just don't have any more questions about Homer walking out of the woods with a muffin. I guess that's hardly the weirdest thing they've seen Homer do. I like the wet slap of his feet.

They're really... Like they're whap, whap, whap. In doing this podcast, you appreciate the Foley people more than you did before. Right. You can really hear the specifics they get. And then Homer goes to like the only place he knows to buy groceries, the Quickie Mart, which has none of the things, which I've now heard of those things. When I was 15 and saw this episode, I didn't know any of the frou-frou Hollywood foods were listed. Yeah. It reminded me, there's like a joke in, I can't remember exactly

what the specifics are, but there's a joke in friends from around this era. It would have been a little later. That's like, it's like Joey's at Monica or no, Joey's at Rachel and Ross's wedding and in the UK and like a British waiter comes up to Joey and is like, and he's like, what's that? And he's like steak tartare with watercress and burrata, something like that. And he's like, what's that? And he's like, steak tartare with watercress and burrata, something like that. And Joey's like, that's not food. You know, it's just like, these are such as everyone knows what this is now. Focaccia is named up as the most like fancy kind of bread. Right, right.

Now it's at every Starbucks, right? Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah, and same with like wheatgrass. I mean, do people even do that anymore? I feel like that's not the hip food anymore. No, that was a trend. There's a wheatgrass place right next to my, like right where I live.

Oh, wow. Okay. I stand corrected. You can get wheatgrass shot. It's good for you. I did want to try a lawnmower after this. Yeah. Wheatgrass and vodka sounded fun.

Yeah. I like Homer listing all the things and Apuja saying like, we have none of those. Yeah, that's funny. Okay. But then the next scene, I feel like there is a scene missing because the next scene is Homer dropping off the food. all the things and Apuja's saying like we have none of those yeah that's funny okay and but then the next scene I feel like there is a scene missing because the next scene is Homer dropping off the food so he did find the food somewhere all the things they asked for but where how did he get it I would love to have seen the scene of Homer in a like fancy food store in Springfield

and just being like I don't even know what this. I feel like he had to go to Shelbyville for that. Oh, yeah. Oh, they have it. That's the only kind of food they have there. Or at least give Homer the line of like, well, he had to go to seven places, but I got, you know, whatever. That's not a joke pitch, but like just some sort of justification for how he got this stuff magically after Quiggy Mart had none of it.

Even the Oscar polish that does seem impossible to find in his state. Yeah. And also, yeah yeah homer this is like the second episode that we just did birth the mother this is the second episode in a row where they describe something as fruity like that was yeah that term was just going around oh yeah sure alec baldwin famous you know classic limousine liberal that's his thing but they own humvees which feels like raw i guess they hadn't turned on humvees no that was the the eco-friendly car was a because there's another uh the the max power episode where ed bagley jr's in he's driving the

car powered on his own sense of self-satisfaction or something yeah that like that was like the weird ed bagley like oh there's these weird eco-friendly celebrities but celebrities in general like like weren't worried about the uh environment as much then i like i like i feel like the big the hummer was just like a big power thing for a time i hadn't thought about ed bagley jr in a minute he's probably so mad just at everything right i fucking told you he rules i worked with him once he's so funny he seems like a cool guy he actually worked with him twice he in everything he appears in, like when he's in West Wing or these other shows, he's always like the uncompromising far left character.

That's usually what they cast him. I think that for as far as Hollywood is concerned, he's as left as someone can be, seriously. That's two collabs with Ed Begley Jr. for Nick Weigert. Two, worked with him twice. Two X with Ed Begley Jr. What were these projects? Oh, you know,

just a couple of things me and Ed worked on together. Tell us, Nick. Tell us. It's no big deal. Come on, Nick, tell us. A couple of things. Nick, tell us about

your times in writing. Brony paper towel thing for funnier time? Yeah, Brony paper towel. He got paid 50 bucks. Free paper towels? No, Brony was like, no, we'll give you a coupon

for a discount on paper towels. Just like Halo Top, they fucked you. We'll take those props back, too. But yes, Homer arrives with the Oscar polish. Yeah. Mahou, I'm about to purchase some weird and fruity items, and I don't want any guff. First of all, I'll need the following mushrooms. Portobello. Yes.

Porcini. Great. Chanterelle. Uh-huh. And shiitake. Okay, we have none of those. What tea is next? A gallon of wheatgrass juice, a five-pound wad of tofu, some jellied zinc, and a couple of pairs of $600 sunglasses.

Mr. Simpson, these exotic items are suspiciously different from your usual order of beer and pork. What gives? Nothing, nothing. I'm just broadening my horizons. By the way, do you have extra white bumper stickers for a Humvee? Wow, you got everything, Homer. Even the Oscar polish. Honey, why don't you give that thing a rest? You're taking the finish off. When you win one, you can take care of it however you want.

Never did. You're taking the finish off. When you win one, you can take care of it however you want. And Homer just has the live studio audience reaction in person. Like, yeah. Baldwin had one nomination, right? After this. He didn't get a nomination before this, which you'd think for Glenn Gary, he would have got nominated. You say he's in it so briefly. Yeah. It's a

perfect supporting amount of time i think yeah was his nomination for boss baby no no no can you guys guess 2003 film uh it's not the departed is it new the aviator no that's 04 2003 alec baldwin movie well okay one more hint the lead actor in it is william h macy all right i know the shadow two uh no though it sounds similar to the shadow it's the cooler oh he has his own superpowers you know i'm kind of the podcast cooler podcast gets too entertaining they bring in his power is he cools down like blackjack tables or something yeah yeah he makes people less lucky because he's a uh a loser that was a movie that happened yes looks like the part william h macy was born to play jesus christ we need a wet blanket yeah yeah and i think alec baldwin played

his usual like alpha asshole like yeah which he's really good at for some reason who knows do you think on that on that set alec baldwin gave William H. Macy the idea to bribe college officials to give his son to school? He was already making plans for Ireland for school. He's like, so easy, William. He's living a William H. Macy movie now. Yeah, true. Did you see him buying those happy graduation day balloons?

Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. Oh, God. Yeah, yeah. Oh, God. It tells a story. But yeah, the turnaround on this joke is really impressive, too, for how long it usually takes to do animation. I feel like it must have been a retake or like a late edition because, like I said, she won that Best Supporting Actor Oscar March 98. And this aired in September 98.

Right. So, yeah, it was a really late edition there. And isn't it Hollywood lore that like if a couple, if two actors are dating and one wins the Oscar, the other, they always break up like that

if they don't both win. That was Hank Azaria and Helen Hunt. It did, yeah. Happened to them. Heath Ledger. I've heard that, generally speaking,

winning an Oscar makes you insane. Oh, yeah. Like I've heard, I mean, anecdotally, like, not 100%, but I've heard that a lot of people who win an Oscar, you insane. Oh, yeah. Like, I've heard, I mean, anecdotally, like, not 100%, but I've heard that a lot of people who win an Oscar,

it's like, well, now what is the thing that you do? Why are you doing anything? Randy Newman killed all those people. It did turn Adrian Brody into Rasta Man.

That's true. Oh. Oh, my God. But, yes, then we get a very unnecessary appearance of Ron Howard, at least for Plop. There's no reason for him to be there, except he's funnier than the two real guests.

He's so good in this. I always forget that he's a great comic actor. I'm just shocked he couldn't get Clint Howard in this, too. Oh, yeah, he's involved. You got to get your boy, Clint. But yes, here's Ron Howard's very funny first appearance. Yes? Hi, I'm Ron Howard.

Ron Howard? Yeah, I'm looking for Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger? I've heard you were looking for a place in Springfield. Yeah, well, it's the only town in America that'll let me fish with dynamite. What's with him? Oh, that's just Homer. in America that'll let me fish with dynamite. Uh, what's with him? Oh, that's just Homer. He's a new friend of ours. Really? You giant stars consider me a friend?

Well, for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm somebody. Ronnie, are you also my close friend? Do I smell vodka and wheatgrass? It's called a lawnmower. I invented it. You want one? Yeah, okay. And I'll have a rum and zinc. Ooh, I'll have one of those, too. Hey, can I crash here tonight?

Sure. We'll all stay. He's so much more alive than Alec and Kim are in it, too. Yeah. And he's, like, a total drunk. He fishes with dynamite. Like, he's just a crazy man who always has his hat on. I think part of it is that like he has a bunch of kids, right? So like the kids must be like the Simpsons is the coolest thing you could do.

So he was like, I got to bring it so my kids think I'm the fucking best. It's like Dustin Hoffman, right? Wasn't that his motivation? For Meryl Streep too. Most people, if it impressed the kids, that's how they always got people as kids and Bryce Dallas Howard probably was just so happy to see him on The Simpsons

Bob Hoskins playing Super Mario well they'll the kids will the kids will make a cameo in a future like next season when Ron Howard returns

they'll be there with him while Homer's about to kill himself yeah yes after he killed himself in this episode well this one in when Ron Howard returns. Oh, right. They're with him. While Homer's about to kill himself. Yeah. Yes. After he killed himself in this episode. Well, this one was accidental.

The other one, in that episode, he is intentionally like ending his life. Like his life is over. Is that the bowling one? Yeah. Okay, yeah. He has like kind of the first act where he bowls a 300 game and then he has like an existential crisis.

And I believe Ron Howard is going to the special zoo for rich people. See the Fantastopotamus. And they always have him drawn in a bathrobe that he's only in for like one scene in this. They up his craziness in his next appearance. But well, actually, I was curious for all you guys, like what for Homer here, he's learning how to not act weird in front of celebrities. Like how hard was that for you guys to learn working in the biz? guys like what for homer here he's learning how to not act weird in front of celebrities like how hard was that for you guys to learn working in the biz i mean i don't know i haven't learned i haven't learned how to do that in front of anybody i'm still learning now yeah we're not staring at

people blankly like homer does no there i mean there's like just like from where i work i'll see uh from time to time see like a very famous person. And it's very funny that like the people that don't work in like on the production side of things will like balk or just like stare at people. And it's very, very crazy. Like people that don't work here every day, like the rest of us will come in and be like, there's a famous person here. This is very, very exciting. I very early on had a very early on in my career when I thought I might be going somewhere, I had a meeting with Imagine, Ron Howard's company, and I went into the waiting room

and another guy comes into the waiting room after me and checks in and then sits down and it's Justin Timberlake. And so we were both waiting together for meetings. They saw him first, naturally. But I was like, but that was like a moment i was like whoa this is like hollywood this is crazy did he tell you to change it from the doughboys to doughboys yeah he said drop the drop the the doughboys is cleaner homer i also like homer just is immediately like into he's doing a sleepover instantly yes but also homer's reaction to them is so much like he would they just do in regular episodes of simpsons from then on of like they see a celebrity and they say lady gaga yeah sure what are you doing here like

but sort of a muppet show joke but then it just became what they do i do like though that homer is equally impressed to see Alec and Kim again when he turns around. Yeah, that's funny. There's a run of good jokes in here. Lon Moore was mentioned earlier and then that Ron wants both drinks. Yeah.

It's really good. And then we cut to the next day. Homer is acting very suspicious, joining PETA, which is not what he would do normally. But Kim Basinger is, I keep almost wanting to say Basinger every time still. I didn't learn from this episode. But like she was very vocal member of PETA back then.

And like Ireland Baldwin Basinger, I think is her name. She's also big into PETA as well now. PETA's the one that executes animals, right? Is that like, that's like the dark side of PETA. Do they do that? I thought it was like, there are four animal rights, and part of that is that animals shouldn't suffer. Therefore, they execute tons of animals.

Yeah. They have, yeah, I don't know exactly. Without trial. Which is like a Lex Luthor sort of, like, logic about, like, how to take care of animals. No, they're like Thanos. They're like, well, 50% of the population must go for the good of humanity. Well, I had heard that they will help thin out. They're like, oh, there need to be fewer of this here so these animals can survive. So they kill some of them themselves.

I've heard that before, too. Yeah, but I think, you know know pita has nice thoughts but they also do i think they waste a lot of time on stupid shit like of nude celebrities yeah i also just don't think that anyone hates animals the way they think the world does like everyone is like yeah we should be nice to animals i don't think anyone is like anti-animal yeah well they went after pokemon and i was like you're you're on my shit list yeah well i just think of like there's there was like this like press release that the like the head of pita did that i remember that she was like thing when i die is that i'm gonna have a barbecue at uh at the at the park or something and then uh feed you know

the people that come to it and then it'll be revealed that it is my meat and my ribs and stuff. She's a freak. I remember with the video game thing when that Super Mario 3D Land came out with the Tanooki power-up. They then made a parody game about how Tanookis are killed for their fur

very brutally. It's good to spread the word about that, but I just felt like, why are you attaching this to mario like mario shouldn't be covered in blood he's he's a cute thing wasn't there a pokemon thing like everyone's second thought about pokemon the like every webcomic joke from 1998 like it's cockfighting and then you move on you move on with your life yeah also the gag is that homer has a cell phone and variety of like, what person would have that? Yes, a cell phone being a novelty. Like that is like the Simpsons history with cell phones is fascinating.

I didn't know how many seasons of The Simpsons there were. So season 10, I was like, oh, Jesus, we're like deep into the show. And so when it was like, you have a cell phone? I was like, wait, when is this? And it wasn't until the end of the episode when the Titanic posters were on the wall that it was like, oh, now I know what time this is.

It can be hard to tell because their TV has bunny ears on it. They live in a very 1960s house. Yeah. And they resisted for the longest time giving characters modern things like laptops and cell phones as time moved forward. Though now, like multiple episodes, Bart will just pull out his smartphone.

He just has it, which all kids do have it. You wouldn't question it. Well, and also Homer knowing Variety. Like now I feel like everybody knows the, I don't know, maybe I'm much more inside than I was as a kid. I feel like Variety went through a, like, nobody knew it and then everybody knew it and I feel like nobody would know it again now. Yeah, that's probably true.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, Prince is dead. Probably because of Entourage. I think so. I think when Entourage was on and helping so many people,

people knew about those things. Helping? What? Helping? Did you just say helping people? Yeah, it was educating the masses about our betters, the celebrities.

Do you have opposite your moth tattoo? Do you have an Ari Gold tattoo? Yeah. On my back it says, let's hug it out, bitch. They lost the good headlines like Hicks, Knicks, Chicks, Flicks, or whatever that famous variety headline is. They're all very too clever. Wait, was that?

Now I'm forgetting if that was a variety or hollywood reporter i thought it was a variety it might have been a variety well now too i think people are just so much more plugged in i blame the superhero movies because now just to know when some actor is going to leave marvel everybody has to know like oh well you know robert downey jr had a six picture, but then he extended it to four more appearances. That's fucking, I hate knowing fucking actors contracts before you see a movie. So you're like, you're like, it's, it's like pending NBA free agency. You're like anticipating storylines based off of whether someone is going to re-up their deal.

It's like, there are worse things in the world. There are worse things in the world. Yes. Nick is standing up. He's standing up while this happens. I'm pissed off. No, I was feeling that before seeing the new Spider-Man movie that I had to ask myself, like, okay, how many films is left on the deal?

Did Civil War count as one of the six? Who's getting points? I mean, Sony and Marvel are, like, sharing points on it. But it's really, Marvel gets all of the merch money, so they're the ones really coming out on top on that. See, I don't like knowing this information. Right. But it's just that's how plugged in everybody is now.

I really liked Spider-Man. Me too. Great. And Vin Diesel and The Rock have a real like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit sort of deal where they have to have the exact same amount of words and screen time and screen space well now they just get filmed like on separate green screens and like people people noticed in the last movie that it's like they don't share one scene together in the last movie they they are sequestered from one another wait who uh the rock and vin diesel they don't shit that's fucking crazy they don't uh they seemingly they don't like each other but then again i think this could just be the rock doing a whole fake wrestling feud to get up the new like he also had a fate or a feud with tyrese too he's like

called tyrese like a bitch or whatever and said he's not as cool as tyrese tried to fight back and i was like my man this is not a fight you're going to win everyone loves the rock a war with words with the rock is not tyrese isn't going to win that no i don't think no how do we talk end up in fast and furious it's also one of my favorite things that was me uh but yeah so homer then is like instructing kim on her workout in the next scene which uh i do like is keep those knees rigid work that lower back jerk that lower back yeah yeah it's fun every every bit of advice being wrong is funny uh and that this also is this also is like a 1998 celebrity workout.

Now celebrities have to take human growth hormone. They have to be all monsters. The idea of someone working out, like doing aerobic exercise with dumbbells is so foreign to what a celebrity workout regimen would be in this day and age. Yeah, it's like a tractor tire now. Right. Pushing a car. A celebrity workout regimen would be in this day and age. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a tractor tire now.

Right. Pushing a car. Oh, and also Homer got a job at Imagine Films. It's not even that he's like friendly with Ron Howard. Howard has hired him for his production company. But yes, as Homer is working out, he also has plans of his own for Hollywood. And lift. And strain. And hyper-extend.

Keep those knees rigid. Jerk that lower back. I'm feeling some sharp pains in my neck. That's right. Force it. Whip that neck. Um, does anybody know where this came from? Oh, there's that movie script I wrote.

Where did you find it? On my pillow. The important thing is, it's got the perfect part for you. Either one of you! It's about a killer robot driving instructor who travels back in time for some reason. Ron Howard's attached to direct. I am not. Well, he expressed an interest.

No, I didn't. Did too! I did not! You lie! Yeah, Homer, most movie scripts are 120 pages. This is only 17. And several of the pages are just drawings of the time machine. So you're saying

you don't want to star in my movie? I'm sorry, Homer. Well, if Alec is out, I'm out too. You're on your own, Potsy. The Terminizer. An erotic thriller? There's not good colons in titles anymore. I love that, an erotic thriller announcing itself. Tell us what we're signing up for, you know?

And clearly Homer, though, can read and write. He wrote a script. I mean, not much of a script, but like 12 pages. I like those sequences. I will say that I had remembered the talking pie thing being seated here, his best friend being a talking pie, but it's not mentioned.

It just comes out later. It's like a detail, an emerging detail. This also feels very inside of just like unsolicited scripts from people outside of the industry. Sure. Which Homer learns the danger of that later, that unsolicited scripts get stolen from him in the end. I also, I like him calling Ron

the wrong Happy Days character too. That's pretty funny. Later he calls him Horshack, I think, right? Yes, yeah. And also Homer using such industry terms too as like attached to direct, expressed in interest. Right. They've cut to the most bar.

Everybody's telling stories about meeting famous people and Homer is just so tempted to like, it's hard to not want to stories about meeting famous people and homer is just so tempted to like it's it's hard to not want to brag about meeting famous people and t but now that's just like twitter hashtags i feel like there's every few months there's like quote tweet this with the most random celebrity you met like tell that story i like that they're the most famous person they've all met is kent brockman who i feel like all these characters have met Krusty like in multiple episodes he's been in Moe's right yeah he had his after party there actually they met Johnny Carson and the Red Hot Chili Peppers at that place right what a sentence and uh with Elizabeth Taylor just hanging outside the window uh but yeah they uh so Homer is tempted to tell this he like at first isn't going to he

even has like this is also very like feels old kind of thing homer doesn't have that many thought balloons uh these up then but this is kind of bringing it back the old thought balloons which like also feels very family guy too right yeah i did like the vague historical figure oh yes yeah or you think it's benjamin franklin but he doesn't care who he is. It's just a person telling him to do what he wants. I like that. Is this the one

where Ron Howard appears? Are you going to play it? I don't know if you're going to play it, but. I am.

Let's play it. Let's play it. So I'm in the grocery store the other day buying some cotton balls. The absorbent kind? You got that right,

my friend. So around the corner and I head down the ointment aisle when who should I spot? None other than Kent Brackman. The local news That right, my friend. So, around the corner and I head down the ointment aisle, when who should I spot? Not nada than Kent Brackman. The local news guy?

Mr. Channel 6? My God, what I get to meet him. They don't come much bigger than that. Kent Brackman, please. Oh, what? I suppose you've seen a bigger star. I might have. Come on, make one a name.

Oof. I can't. I promise I wouldn't. Oh, yeah, right. You ain't seen nobody. Oh, another great one. Oh, just barely a joke. You've got to keep our secret, Homer. Homer, we're out of vodka. Tell the people, Homer,

they have a right to know about the celebrities in my house. Who the hell are hell are you what do you care i'm telling you what you want to hear all right i'm gonna let you guys in on something but you got to keep it much more secret than i did just sells him out and seemingly gives him their address too not just telling a story story. But yeah, Ron Howard saying Homer, we're out of vodka. That's a pretty good line. That's good. See, again, he's having so much more fun with his character than the other two are, I think. I mean, Alec is, he dunks on himself a little bit, but mostly just Baldwin Brothers jokes are at his expense. And there's like one joke that he's very conceited.

Just one. Did I miss something? Did he have an Oscar yet? Or was that for A Beautiful Mind in a few years? Oh, yeah. It was a... Apollo 13? No, no, no.

He was chasing that Oscar for a while. Yeah. I think Beautiful Mind was the first one. And I don't think he's had an Oscar. Oh, boy. Maybe not Best Picture. No. Boy, I am trying to remember here.

Rush was like a big contender. Everyone remembers how good Rush is. Yeah, we were all big. You have a Rush tattoo. Yeah, and it says underneath in parentheses, not the band. Leave me alone if you'd like that. Get out of here. And then they cut back to Homer.

Homer tells him everything. Then Homer's back at the summer house playing doubles with them. And I just love how he just shits on Ron Howard for being a bad doubles partner. Yeah, at Badminton. tells him everything then homer's back at the summer house playing doubles with them and i just love how he just shits on ron howard for being a bad doubles partner yeah badminton i just love he's like unbelievable and ron howard's reaction too is just like what like he's such a good delivery he's okay he's just good at everything they have fun saying shuttlecock too yeah oh yeah i'd misremember that joke as being from the episode where they build the tennis court oh yeah it's from this one where they're playing batman we're a little uh where that is another celebrity fiesta episode for sure right where they just give up and let the

celebrities just play tennis against each other and they don't they are not active in their own plot anymore but also 1998 seems a little late for a Jurassic Park reference. Oh yeah. Yeah. I had fun with it. Maybe last legal year you could do that. I mean, seeing the pink lemonade,

the choice of pink lemonade, which is like a, I don't know, that feels too cheap for celebrities to get. Do you feel like they'd have fancier lemonade? I thought that was the joke they were setting up. I thought it was like, look at the lemonade.

It's cheap. It's country time. Well, but these celebrities are so normal in here. They apparently like cheap lemonade. And yes, it's an invasion of the fans at their place. Also, to really put this in time, they have a You Complete Me sign, which doesn't really fit with any. None of them were in a movie. I also was, I guess the Jurassic Park thing confused me, too.

I was like, they could have done a reference to a, you know, a film one of these people was in instead of Jurassic Park. Maybe that's too obvious, I guess. Maybe, or I don't know. But like a Backdraft reference. One of those very famous scenes from Backdraft. Was Alec in Backdraft? No, it was a Ron Howard director. But it was a different, Baldwin was in it.

I think it was a Billy. I think, yeah, Billy was in that one. Actually, I don't think they acted in movies together. Like, I don't think he directed a film that they were in. The closest, in my research, I could find was like, Brian Grazer was an executive producer on 8 Mile, which Kim was in as Eminem's famously wonderful mother.

But why did they, it's so, it is like kind of weird that Ron Howard is the guy then because he doesn't really have any connection to them. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm glad he's in it, but. I mean, I guess he was like the director they could, the funny guy they could get. Right. I mean, it's better than like if tim burton showed up who did direct both of them in movies it's also weird actually when the people show up i would believe that smithers would make a reference to la confidential they like it though it's a joke

that smithers is a drag performer which they've never done before or that he just likes wearing women's shoes uh but yeah they have they have done that with chief wiggum though that he like finally excused to wear makeup which is like oh they could They have done that with Chief Wiggum, though, that he finally excused to wear makeup. Yeah. Which is like, oh, they could have maybe done that with Wiggum. It would have been more unpredictable with Wiggum. Instead, it just feels like a cheaper gay joke with Smithers. Yeah.

Right. And then meanwhile, the comic book guy, the silent running sub thing is kind of funny, but if we're all punching up jokes on this old simpsons episode he should be making a reference like batman or to uh the shadow like comic book movies these guys were in that would have been i i don't know some vicky vale joke i do like that how pedantic but the the the level of pedantry is accurate for the comic for comic book guy I think that was like the first internet pedant Hollywood writers made fun of was Comic Book Guy.

He predicted Neil deGrasse Tyson. But yeah, the celebrities are furious with Homer for letting the secret out. He's rejected by them. They know that he let out the secret. Somebody must have told them we live here. I'm looking at you, poor Jack.

How could you? Okay, okay, it was me. I'm sorry I blew your secret, but you don't know what it's like to be a nobody. I just wanted to bask in your reflected glory. Reflected glory! Homer, you betrayed our confidence. I just don't think we can be friends anymore.

But where will I pass? Anywhere but here. Come on, Ron. We're not wanted here. All right, I'll go. But the next time you want someone to remind you which brother is which, or smell your hair while you're sleeping, just remember, old Homer won't be here anymore. Hey, come on!

Wait a minute. Somebody's coming out. Who is it? Is it anybody? Nah, nah, it's nobody. Throw your stones. It's nobody. So Moe's plan was to murder anyone who came out that wasn't famous.

It's punishment for not being famous. I was saying to Nick earlier that that joke drives me insane because Homer is like one of Mo's like best friends. Like he would know Homer. Right. He should be famous too in Springfield. Yeah. Well, they're only there because Homer told Mo. Yeah.

But he's just simply a nobody to them as he walks out. That could have worked if they'd given it to like, well, this doesn't quite work because he's a celeb. I was going to say Sideshow Mel. But if they'd like had like, you know, Mr. Largo or the sea captain like be the one who's like, you could do the throw your stones thing. It just doesn't ever come from Moe. Or a straight up nobody character that we've never met before.

That'd be actually, that's actually a really good punch up. It's a very biblical moment of them stoning Homer too for being unfamous. Again, they just go to the creepy thing that he smells her hair when she's sleeping. Like that should be a too far kind of thing for Kim if she's a normal person. There's another joke like that that I think is worse. Oh, yeah. Though it's also weird that like in the future, Alec Baldwin actually will have like a dangerous stalker that gets arrested stalking him.

Like it's I don't know, this joke probably became this episode probably became less funny to him. Now, I would think he never watches this because it reminds him of the wife he wrote a whole book about it's uh that it was a similarly uncomfortable thing on the commentary for this one and the one with helen hunt where they're just they are like yeah this was the production and they just talk around the very obvious like elephant in the room of the famous hollywood divorce right their show and so they come back from break homer is uh very sad they it's a well-drawn man witch that he's got there i he uh and but and then homer reflects on how we

be focaccia bread he he uses terms like ankle to get out of like a very variety term there which i don't i feel like they don't even use anymore like i was not familiar with ankle yeah oh wow i mean it means you know ending like will ferrell just ankled adam mckay at gary sanchez productions like that that's that's how you'd use it in a sentence and also they still they have the they made sure to draw lisa not eating meat they sometimes they still would goof that up but they stuck with her just identical piles of slop yeah yeah but her slop is green so you know it's not me. Homer realizes he shouldn't be mean to his children who are no Joan and John Cusack. He needs to get revenge on the celebrities. And I do like a good, they do so many gags in the season two of like blank a, I love that.

Yeah. Do we get to the Martha Ray joke? Cause I wanted to talk about that. So this is then, yeah, yeah. So Homer says the only person that would understand me is the guy who married Martha Ray, which I did not know until this episode. Does anybody in this room know what this reference is? Okay.

So this guy named Mark Harris, he was a very effeminate hairdresser for an entertainer named Martha Ray, who was sort of entering her eighties as the nineties were approaching. She basically married him in a sham wedding to not go into a nursing home. And he was sort of taking advantage of her. They were kind of taking advantage of each other. But this was the less cartoonish version of Anna Nicole Smith and that old guy. So this was a popular joke in the very early 90s. And this is what Homer is referencing.

He is comparing himself to a man who is preying upon an elderly person to take her money. And saying he would understand Homer. But he was a member of like the Howard Stern whack pack this guy Mark Harris fascinating and they would invite him in to clown on him and make a lot of gay jokes

of course but that's what this reference is it's similar to the type of jokes when Liza Minnelli was married to that what David guy oh yeah

very similar of like Geist or something yeah yeah of just it lets you do gay jokes and ageist jokes. It's all... You get to hit all of the... But now this guy, he like writes music about pro-Trump music for the president.

But there's another Republican congressperson or governor or something named Mark Harris, so he's impossible to Google. But that's what he does now is write... Beat him on SEO, that other Mark Harris. Wow. When I ever heard that line, Martha Ray, I was like, I just let it go past. I never dug deeper into it. Like, cause she died in like 94 and.

91, I think. Or 91. So it's more dated of a joke than the Jurassic Park joke. Yeah, that's true. So Homer has decided he's going to get some revenge. And his revenge comes in the form of an RV. Attention, starstruck fools!

Step right up and see the world's greatest mobile collection of Alec and Ron and Kim-a-ra-belia. Only five. No, wait, ten dollars. You heard right. Twenty dollars. Ha ha ha! Mmm!

I'm a year old star! Hey, it's Alec Baldwin's $20! Too late. Hey, go easy on the celebrities, huh? Yeah, what gives you the right? Bring on celebrities! Oh, yeah? What have they ever done for you? When was the last time Barbra Streisand cleaned out your garage? And when it's time to do the dishes, where's Ray Bolger? I'll tell you. Ray Bolger is looking out for Ray Bolger.

I had to look up Ray Bolger. I had no idea who that is. Was he the scarecrow? Yes. Yeah, in The Wizard of Oz. He was dead, too. Oh, interesting. He died in 89.

That's why he's not doing, that's why he's not cleaning any windows. Once I, when I was 15, I did know who the scarecrow was. But no, you know, other than Judy Garland, you don't know the names of people who are in it unless you're a big, a big whiz head. But at first I thought this thing was supposed to be like a Kramer reality tour reference. But I, now that I've been walking around Hollywood where we've been staying, it just feels like all of the like Hollywood museums you just see all around. Yeah. But while with Homer's like stolen things and the and they make sure to have like, there's a very like realistic looking LA Confidential poster in there too, which Homer must have

stolen that as well from them. Making fun of him for having an allergy to penicillin too. Though what also strikes me as weird here is that Krusty is there, which is like, you're Krusty, you're too famous to care about these famous people. Yeah, that's a weird thing. He shouldn't be there. I will say that I like the Royal Crown Cola thing.

I've retained that as a thing I say about RC Cola now because I used to drink a lot of RC Cola. So yeah, I call it Royal Crown Cola at every opportunity. I think about that joke whenever I see it and that's kind of rare now. I don't know who carries it anymore. Really? Yeah, Royal Crown Cola. That stuck. I think about that joke whenever I see it. And that's kind of rare now. I don't know who carries it anymore. Really? Yeah, Royal Crown Cola.

That stuck with you that long, Nick? Yeah. RC stands for Royal Crown. No, I mean, I know that it does. Royal Crown Cola. All right. So when I see an RC Cola, I'm like, Royal Crown Cola. If you don't see it, I'm going to slap you.

I bet they didn't get any free Royal Crown for that joke. No, no. No, yeah. If they had, they would have bragged about it on the commentary. Every thing they get. That feels like a thing that I bet RC Cola's social media is leaning into now. The fact that it's called Royal Crown Cola. Yeah, I mean, they, well.

Every brand is so self-aware. I think they're in the kind of Arby's, like, laugh at ourselves style. Right, right. Yeah. Right. Or that they, like, or they tweet desperately at Coca-Cola to try to get in a Twitter flame war of, like, let's respond to each other. Like, it's so weird to see these brands that are just self-aware. The brands are pretending to commit suicide and helping each other.

Is that happening? I mean, I remember it was what, what what it was like moon pie talked to wendy i was like and sunny good rn yeah yeah and sunny delight got in on it too it was weird yeah i feel like the late 90s was very brand aware like all the commercials were like we get it you know this is a commercial and you don't want to fucking listen and now now I feel like structurally, culturally, 9-11 made us all, like, want to be really sincere again. And so we're like, oh, no, brands are great, and America is good, and Coca-Cola. And we're finally back at the late 90s again, where Wendy's is like, fuck this. Eat our sauce.

It's either that or, like, every commercial is a Tim and Eric sketch. It's like a unicorn shits out a hamburger, and you eat it, and it's absurdist. like every commercial is a tim and eric sketch that is not it's like a unicorn shits out a hamburger and you eat it and it's uh absurdist terry cruz is there yeah at least sometimes they hire tim and eric to do it yeah occasionally yeah yeah i think the royal crown thing they they just uh they are like they used to be the third top cola but now uh i am not a cola drinker but you you prefer it to Pepsi and Coke, Nick? I tell you, that was my go-to cola for a while. I think I drink soda so rarely now. It was a vice I had to cut out. 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? In order to slim down a bit um and um which i kind of succeeded at and i would say that if i do indulge in a in a soda now it's usually a coke because that's usually what's

available it's usually like i add a restaurant and i'm like oh fuck it i'll get a full sugar coke you weren't doing the uh the gamer stereotype of mountain dew oh I was doing that. No, I had this, I think I've told my podcast partners over on this side of the table with this before, but my breakfast

when I worked in video games for over a year was I would have a Mountain Dew Code Red, Don't say it. a cup of black coffee, Stop.

and a Snickers bar. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Like 8 a.m. every day. I like choose to forget that every time you tell me. That's nightmarish. Man. As Homer is mocking the celebrities and talking about how much he hates them,

the celebrities miss Homer. Oh, look. Wasn't that a fun weekend? Yeah. Homer was a pretty good guy. And we just tossed him out like a Golden Globe Award. I've got to admit, I miss the way he used to tuck us in and kiss us on the forehead. Forehead?

Maybe I should have made his movie. Yeah, it wasn't that bad. I mean, the script might even work if you got rid of the talking pie. What are you, crazy? It's a buddy picture. Without the pie, it would just be me on screen for two hours oh yeah and you'd hate that no no no you can't lose the pie the pie is your heart okay okay keep the damn pie the point is we weren't fair to homer he screwed up but he deserves another chance yeah everyone makes mistakes. I mean, we'd want another chance if one of us ever made a bad film,

right? They're silent for six whole seconds. I love the idea that the movie is Alec Baldwin and a pie on screen for two hours, because if you take out the pie, it's just Alec Baldwin.

That's really, really funny. There's no other characters in the film. Yeah. But they're starting to warm to it. I feel like the most authentic reading of Kim in this episode is her saying, oh, you'd hate that. That felt very real there.

And yes, Homer kisses her on the lips, apparently. Homer sexually assaulted Kim Basinger several times, apparently. Homer is canceled. We don't even know that it's lips. That's true. She just says. That's true. Sexually assaulted, Kim Basinger, several times apparently, Homer is canceled. We don't even know that it's lips. That's true. She just says.

That's true. But despite all that, she still misses him. Yeah, she misses him. That's true. It's dark. The implication of it is dark. It could be vagina. Yeah. Yeah.

My first thought was feet, if not mouth. That says something about me. That's where I go. You're always begging for mercy though when Alec Baldwin he never he hadn't won Golden Globe to this point now he has all for 30 Rock he got nominated

for film stuff but he only got it in TV when he actually won Golden Globes I don't know if Golden Globes are worth more now than they were then I'm not sure they definitely get promoted more I like that ron howard is now so into the film too that he's like talking like a producer like no that's the heart you can't cut that it's uh it's a very insidery moment too but it being a talking pie is just so silly that i think it's a lot of fun yeah yeah yeah i And there's silence on making a bad movie. They've all made many bad movies, even to that point.

Like, oh, yeah. And now I feel like Kim Basinger, she does appear in stuff, but it's it's like when I looked at her credits, it's it's in these smaller roles that make you when you see you go like, oh, hey, there she is. Wow. Like she she does not open films anymore. Like, I think her most recent big role is she's in the second to the two and three of the Fifty Shades of Grey film in the Greyiverse of films. Wow.

I think she's Grey's mom. Holy shit. I didn't even know that. I didn't know that either. Well, it's her getting back. I think it's good casting because I believe the first thing she got famous for was Nine and a Half Weeks, an erotic thriller of its own. So they're bringing it back, which it's surprising that that was like the sexy film back then. So they're ready to forgive Homer.

And then they come outside and see that he's parading around in their underwear, which, again, it feels very like current to have a joke that Homer didn't get to go to the Oscars. Like that feels like a late addition to that. I guess if they were writing it in like December, they could have assumed she was in the Oscar conversation for L.A. Confidential. Definitely they were pushing for it already. They decide that this time it's personal. And I do love his delivery of underpants. He's got our underpants. And Homer drives away he makes sure to say like i'll never get away in the museum and so uh it comes to a uh very dramatic action-packed chase

scene here pull over you maniac no just jump over there alec it's not that far yeah you're a big screen tough guy gee i'd love to but I'm not really wearing the right shoes. Bruh! Bruh! Fine. Ah! Ah! Ha, ha, ha, ha!

Hey, I made it! All by myself. Hey, were you watching, sweetheart? I made it! Ow! Ah! My watch is caught! Ah! Ha, ha, ha, sweetheart? I made it. Ow. Ah, my watch is caught. Hold on.

Can you drive? Not well. But I'll give it a shot. He was in Grand Theft Auto, the movie, right? Oh, wait. The 70s movie. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah.

Man, I think he was in some other racing film, too. Rush. He directed Rush. That's what it was. Back to Rush. Oh, God. It was a movie called Burning Dust or something. It was an old Ron Howard movie.

Yeah, like when they tried to make him a movie star. Yeah, yeah. That brief time. He has to be the most successful child actor, right? Probably. Nobody even remembers him as Opie from Andy Griffith show

I guess it depends on how you define success because he like he has been he's had an amazing directing career but it's like

not like he's been he's become known as this adult actor with his amazing career like you maybe point it like I don't know I mean does Josh Brolin count

you know I mean yeah because he'slin count? You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Because he's still doing the thing he started doing. Right, yeah, started as an actor and continued as an actor as an adult. What about like Britney Spears? Didn't she start as like a child singer? Oh, right, yeah. A Disney club, Mickey Mouse club kid.

Yeah, that's where she had started, yeah. But now she's like retired again or something. She is? You can't see her in Vegas anymore. I don't fucking know any of this stuff. She's going through some tough times again. Let's all pray for Brittany. But it was Grand Theft Auto.

Okay. Wow. Is that why they can't? Could they not make a Grand Theft Auto movie now? Because they already have the rights to it there? I think the movie can be anything. Called anything. Well, I also think CJ may not be available.

Yeah, CJ might be. And the delivery of my watch is caught is so weird. Like, it's just the way he screams it. It's like he didn't get the joke.

Yeah. It feels like Alec was insisting, like, how will people know if my watch is caught if I don't scream it out loud? But he goes from wanting to escape to trying to kill them. Homer tries to kill all of them.

Yes. Like he should be going when it comes to the trial, he should be going to jail for attempted murder. It's maybe like two. This is maybe too obvious, but I kind of was expecting of like they're almost setting it up like, OK, well okay well they're actors but they can't actually do this shit you know and like you like you almost were thinking my expectation is like alec baldwin's just gonna fuck up spectacularly but it's not it's like homer who ends up doing it well they saved the one for ron howard like he can't do it but apparently uh alec baldwin actually is a action star in real life he can do do those things. And it's a really good action-y drawing of the way Kim is holding on to the top of it

while Homer, yeah, Homer's swerving. It's like he is trying to kill her. He wants her to die. It's kind of a thing that I guess Galaxy Quest did so well, which is they're just actors. They can't actually do this stuff. And when they try to do it, they kind of fuck it up and then eventually figure it out.

But here it's like almost they do just they try to do it they kind of fuck it up and then eventually figure it out you know but here it's like almost they're they're just they do just know how to do it i wonder if alec was uh insisting like well if he's gonna call me a chicken i have to succeed yeah i can't yeah right i can't get uh clowned on by ron howard in this but the image of cartoon alec baldwin like missing and then just like rolling down like the highway while they drive away is very funny yeah oh yeah when ron howard just hits the ground just like yeah just his the way you think he's the music tells you he's got the jump and then he just hangs in midair and just smashed i kind of wish they just killed him and they're like in the world of simpsons ron howard is dead yeah homer killed him yeah no grinch no grinch no oh no they didn't get the grinch but then we wouldn't have that Well, the Simpsons, Ron Howard is dead. Yeah. Homer killed him. Yeah. No Grinch. No Grinch.

No Grinch. Oh, no, they didn't get the Grinch. But then we wouldn't have that whole section of the Universal Hollywood Tour where you get to see the Grinch town. The aging Whoville. Yeah. It's covered in guano. That is a disgusting Whoville in Universal. I love also just the delivery of like, you've killed Ron Howard.

Yeah, I'll stop. But yes, Homer. Homer is then taken to court and he has quite an argument for his in his defense you killed ron howard okay i'll stop mr simpson do you have anything to say for yourself? Yes, I do. I believe that famous people have a debt to everyone. If celebrities didn't want people

pawing through their garbage and saying they're gay, they shouldn't have tried to express themselves creatively. In closing, you people must realize that the public owns you for life. And when you're dead you'll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners thank you your honor mr simpson you are forbidden to come within 500 miles of any celebrity living or dead homer is corrected all p Peter Cushing style that people will be reanimated long after the death. The crossing of the line back then was, was it a...

Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire. Dirt Devil commercial. Yeah. That was, I think, the first time celebrities really thought about like, oh, what is my corpse going to be doing? But now it just feels like the way technology is going, they're just going to recreate every actor for all time in movies. Well, luckily, I think we're at the end of actors. Like, I'm serious.

I feel like this, one of the cultural artifacts of this is that it's like sort of pre-internet. And the internet sort of like shotgunned all, not shotgun, like killed them. But like all celebrities are so small now and have their own set like intense niche fandoms that unless you're in like an Avengers movie, like you're not really a celebrity anymore. Right, sure. Yeah, nobody's famous like Will Smith was famous in the 90s. Yeah, yeah.

Even Will Smith feels like diminished in who he is now. Like that, those are like the only celebrities that can feel like he attraction now. It's like, oh, Will Smith is telling a funny story about uh dj jazzy jeff you never heard that before but yeah i i think well social media makes you so much more in touch with celebrities like and also you could get like easily into a flame war with any celebrity and then blocked by them that it did you're too in touch with them now hey Hey, you can tweet at Homer. He's verified. Oh, my God.

I can't even get verified in a cartoon's verified. I mean, he's got bigger connections. That's true. He knows Ron Harris. What does it mean that Homer is verified? I mean, I know what it means, but what does it mean? He's real. Is it at Homer?

It means he's real. Like, do the writers, hold on, though. Do the writers write Homer tweets? Probably. I think so. What is Homer canon on Twitter? You know, I don't follow, hold on, though. Do the writers write Homer tweets? Probably. I think so. What is Homer Cannon on Twitter? You know, I don't follow Homer on Twitter, actually. At Homer J. Simpson, official Twitter for Homer Simpson, 2.1 million followers.

Wow. Here's a, you know what? He hasn't tweeted since 2018. There must have been an episode then where he had a Twitter account and tweeted. He probably did. Yeah. Let's see. Here is a, here is a tweet.

This last tweet, 3-2018. I just woke up. Is the St. Patrick's Day parade still going? So it's, so it is canon. Like that sounds canonical. Yeah. He does have a lot of tweets. He doesn't tweet very often.

Nick also only reads tweets of people waking up. Well, maybe it's one of those writer room accounts and then the writers like got bored and stopped doing it. I mean, with that non-joke, it seems like they're pretty bored. That's not a great tweet. Here's one from May 15th, 2016, which is not very far down his feed. So maybe they've deleted a lot of these or that he just doesn't tweet very often. Someone tweets at him, do you have a favorite NBA basketball team?

Hashtag Homer live, I guess is the thing they were doing. He replies, he replies the Cavaliers because they're named about after my attitude about basketball, which is not really like a Homer-y joke. Like it's like a fine construct, but it's a little too clever for Homer. Homer's dumb. I forgot about Homer live.

That's where like Dan Castaneda in character talked as Homer. Right. They somehow matched it up closely. You know, maybe it stopped going because after Disney bought Fox, they're like, we don't approve of this anymore. This is going under our PR department. On this account, I also noticed there are two spaces after every period, which irks me.

There has to be some old guy there writing those things. You know what, Twitter, when I perform Homer Simpson on Twitter, I double space that. There would be no punctuation or capitalization. Or random caps in wrong places. This man does not know how to read. It would actually it would be a bummer

to see I would actually tweet like right because it's just like oh that's just how a dumb guy writes. Yeah. It's like oh it would just bum you out.

Though Homer is forbidden forever being next to a celebrity in four episodes he will be hanging out with Mark Hamill and saving his life like so.

This court ruling is not very binding in Homer's case. Yeah, it's not enforced. But then also, I don't know, calling the old lady from Titanic, that feels a little flat to me. Like, I would have laughed more if they'd said her real name. But, eh. Yeah, that joke, when I saw that, too, I was just like, well, why her? Why?

Was she, like, part of the cut where people like always talking about her in that way well she definitely was at the same oscars where kim basinger basinger won they took like multiple times of like we're so happy you're here look who's here it's her like everybody stand and applaud her like she she got celebrated quite a lot of that oscars like kim's win was one of the few non-Titanic wins there. Right. The Titanic won everything except actor Oscars. It is, though, like in an episode where they reference Mark Harris, right, and Ray Bolger.

But then they're like a current celebrity they call Old Lady from Titanic. I mean, it's a choice, but yeah, it feels like they could have just said a specific name. Well, surprise, I'm the one who runs the Homer account. He did a great job. You think that's the end of the episode, but then we cut back to Hollywood. I love it. And get the joke that predicted 21 years later,

the purchase of Fox by Disney. Like it's the sign is Fox, Walt Disney Company, which like that was a gag then they had no clue Fox would actually be sold to Disney then. But I, I'd seen that, you know, that logo going around, but I had completely forgotten it was this episode. Again, now I know too many things. I think like Brian Grazer wouldn't have an office at Fox. They were working with Universal then. It'd have been on the Universal lot, not the Fox lot. And it's also distracting,

like behind him is a Titanic poster and they're flesh toned. Like they are not yellow. And he did not work on Titanic? No, he's just a fan, right? Yeah, yeah. Do you think that the existence of the joke where Disney buys Fox in The Simpsons and then Trump is president in The Simpsons and Lisa Simpson follows implies that Elizabeth Warren is our next president?

She is the Lisa Simpson. She is the Lisa Simpson. Maybe. It could be. She kind of looks like an old Lisa Simpson. Yeah, that's true. Liz and Lisa are so close yeah they spell and say their names differently but lisa was never republican so yeah that's true yeah

also this joke soon in just a few months you'll be able to watch this joke on disney plus to complete the cycle uh but yes let's let's hear from old brian grazer which is such a random choice like it does feel like just a favor to ron howard of like why not just have instead of just harry sheerer playing your producer let's just have your producer here it's kind of a fun little easter egg i don't think it hurts anything he's fine in it no his appearance in season four of arrested development i'd say is more masturbatory than this, for sure. He still has that anime hair, though, right? Oh, I think so, yeah.

Yeah, he always looks like he saw something very scary. But yes, here's the end of the episode. And it grows to a powerful, emotional climax when the father has to choose which one of his children will live and which one will die. Pass. What else you got?

Well, well, there is this one thing. It's about a killer robot driving instructor that travels back in time for some reason. I'm listening. Okay, okay. Well, you see, this robot, he's got a heartbreaking decision to make about whether his best friend

lives or dies. Eh. His best friend's a talking pie. Sold! Howard, you've done it again. These happy days These happy days

Are yours and mine Happy days I love it. Great ending. That ending, like, for me, almost is like, I like that this episode exists. It's a very funny sequence. The joke is increased by they actually shelled out for the Happy Days theme.

Yeah, I love that. And the smile on Ron Howard's face holding up two giant bags of money. It's a great parting shot in the episode. Yeah, it's... I kind of forgot he was on Happy Days until

that joke. I was like, oh, that's why he's a good comic actor because he was a comic actor for 20 years and on Andy Griffith and stuff like that. So...

Yeah, and I think, you know, this voiceover stuff, maybe this is... Do you think this led him to choose to be the voiceover narrator for Arrested Development? It didn't.

You got me. That's my best run. That's pretty good. Yeah, that episode. Yeah, it's there's there is some really funny stuff in there. There's other stuff that feels like a little too nice to celebrities. I kind of like it when they're meaner, but they they can't be that mean to when famous people show up in the show yeah but

any final thoughts you guys got i was saying before that i was like this i remember watching this episode as a kid and thinking it was like a funny episode and like i think when we were given the option of episode i was like oh that one that one's like really fun and i watched it and i was like this episode's kind of bad like it is strange for me this one and not as severe but it is like the mel gibson episode where it's so affected by the current understanding of who the celebrity star is you know because like like alec baldwin is such a piece of shit and mel mel gibson obviously is a huge piece of shit that episode's even we weirder because it's about how much he's a hunk and how much everyone loves Mel Gibson.

And a great father. A great dude. Oh, y'all love him. And this one's less about that, but it is so much so centered on Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger were supposed to like and relate to them, and then you're just like, oh, he's a fucking maniac. But yeah, there's some good jokes in it.

It's just a silly, this is where the show starts to become a cartoon this is around this time and I think this is like a fun it's got some fun cartoony sequences that just kind of embrace that wait what does that mean it was always a cartoon no it was live action up until like season 9 the characters were just in heavy prosthetics

no I like for me it was like an animated sitcom it felt a lot more grounded I like like for me it was it was like an animated sitcom. It felt a lot more grounded. I think like up until maybe the season before before this and then it started to get like have stuff that is more fantastical like the head turning completely around, you know, it started to have more

more cartoon logic within it. And does that still happen in modern Simpsons or do you know? Yes, I think they've embraced they've like really embraced that and like the show just is a cartoon now. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Yeah.

Heather, will this lead you to watch more Simpsons? No. We didn't win her over. No. I mean, it was like, here's the thing.

I like as a comedian, you're supposed to, you're supposed to like deify the Simpsons and it's supposed to be, you're supposed to talk about how brilliant it is and how great the writer's room is and how it's your dream job and I don't feel any of those things

about the Simpsons. I really like cartoons that are like exceptionally violent or sad and Simpsons just doesn't tickle those things

unless I don't know unless the you count the time that Mr. Burns died. Right? You mean when he got shot? Oh, he didn't die?

No. Man, I tried. You didn't see part two. I died. Right? You mean when he got shot? Oh, he didn't die? No. Man, I tried. I tried. Missed part two. Maude Flanders gets fucking iced. Oh, yeah. She legit dies. Oh, nice.

Yeah. I'll watch that one. You should watch that one. It's everyone's favorite episode, by the way. That's when the show got good. Is that serious? She gets fucking hit with a t-shirt gun and falls to her death. Yeah, that really happened.

Yeah, and then her, Ned Flanders, a very Christian man, has a struggle with his faith in the aftermath. Wow! Yeah, it's a great episode. And there's a joke about his giant penis in that same episode, right? It's a fucking vlog. Yeah, yeah. That honestly is a thing for me where, because like, when we learn that Flanders has a fantastic body, I'm like, oh, I like that. Cause that's funny. Cause that's what's hiding under that sweater. That's a funny detail.

And that actually makes sense that, that a very Christian man would be that, that like you, maybe this obsession would be fitness, but him having like a fucking 10 inch dick, that's too far. You've, you've over heightened like the,

the fun of, of him being honky or him being like sexually desired. Do you see his penis? It's blurred out. They showed his dick pixelated, but they show it. Are you serious? The pixels go below his knee. Yeah. of him being hunky or him being like sexually desirous wait do you see his penis it's blurred out it's blurred out pixelated but they show it are you serious the pixels go below his knee

yeah it's like and his wife died in the previous act yeah his wife died and then Homer films him in the shower

this is my episode this is it that's the one it's also revealed that he's like 60 years old right so he's just like 60 years old

there was like a season before that yeah yeah he's 60 with a huge dick and just like a ripped body. Yeah. Yes, yeah. And a dead wife and two children under 10. We talked about Ned's dick.

I think it's time for plugs. We'll do our own plugs once we are out of here. But you guys, let us know where we can find you. You've got many podcasts going on, including Doughboys and How Did This Get Played. Yes. Please talk about those. Check out How Did This Get Played. You may know about Doughboys. How Did This Get Played. Yes. Please talk about those. Check out How Did This Get Played.

You know, you may know about Doughboys, my podcast about chain restaurants, but I would love people to check out How Did This Get Played. Me and Heather and Matt Apodaca, all of us here,

we all put this together and we reviewed terrible video games. Sonic 06, we talked about. Superman 64, Had a Full Boyfriend, The Pigeon Dating Sim,

Vroom in the Night Sky, the insane Nintendo Switch game, Dragon's Lair, the awful FMV animated arcade game from the 80s. We run the gamut of all these different categories and types of bad, unplayable, and weird games, and we dissect them, and we talk about maybe what's interesting about them and what's just indefensible about them in the same way that you guys address Simpsons episodes. What am I missing on that? I mean, that was it, man. You fucking killed it.

That was, you didn't even have notes. You just went. Yeah. There wasn't even an um in the middle of that run. I think there's probably an um in there.

I don't think so, dude. If there is, like just edit it out. It's gone. Consider it done. But yeah, but having a great time working with Heather and Matt

on this and it's, I hope people check out the podcast. Yeah. And we'll have you guys on. Yeah. We can talk about one of the famously bad Simpsons games at some point in the future. We have about 20 to choose from. It's a 20 episode series.

No, but all right. We got that on tape. So we, that's officially fine. No, we have a, we have a lot of gamer listeners.

I know. So I hope they check out your show, guys. Totally. Yeah. Thank you so much. This was a long podcast. So thank you very much, guys. Thank you.

Thank you. So thanks again to Nick Weiger, Heather Ann Campbell, and Matt Apodaca of The Great Podcast. How did this get played? And of course, Nick has his podcast, Doughboys, as well. Check out both of those wherever you find great podcasts. But as for us, if you want to help us out and get a ton of great stuff on the side, please go to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. If you sign up at the $5 level, you'll get every one of these podcasts one week ahead of time and ad free. And the same goes for our sister show, What a Cartoon.

You'll also have access to all of the paywalled podcasts at the $5 level. Too many to list here, but that includes all of our miniseries, including the most recent one, Talking of of the hill a first season exploration of king of the hill and a new mini series that will be coming this fall only for five dollar patrons you can check it all out at patreon.com slash talking simpsons henry we have a newer ten dollar level what is happening there i know there are extra long podcasts my goodness are there yes for our premium ten dollar and up patrons at patreon.com slash talking simpsons do they get a special treat every month we do a new what a cartoon movie podcast me and bob go into extra special detail like we do with the simpsons but for a different animated feature film once a month

up to four hours long some of these have been and if you sign up right now you will hear july's episode beavis and butthead do america and august is coming real soon plus all of the previous ones before that so much awesome content all to help support us ten dollars a month at patreon.com slash talking simpsons so i've been one of your hosts bob mackie find me on twitter as bob servo i have another podcast by the way that is retro knots Knots, a classic gaming podcast. Every Monday and occasionally on Friday, go to retronauts.com or look for Retro Knots in your podcast machine.

If you like video games, you should like the podcast. Henry, what about you? You can follow Henry Gilbert on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. I share my thoughts on politics, video games, comic books, and most importantly, every time a new podcast goes up on the Patreon or on our free feed for all of our podcasts,

I tweet them out. And so you'll be first to know about it if you follow me again on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you next week for Doan in the Wind, and we will see you then. be wrong rockin' and rollin' all week long Monday, Monday happy days Tuesday, Wednesday happy days Thursday, Friday

happy days Saturday what a day movin' all week for you. These days are ours, seven degrees. These days are ours, happy and free. These happy days are yours and mine.

These happy days are yours and mine. Happy days. Hmm, this is such a secluded area. I'm yours and mine, happy days