Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Homer Goes to College With Evan Susser

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

As we head into production season 5 and a huge changeover for the series, we're joined by first-time guest, writer/podcaster Evan Susser! The Doughboys Commissioner helps us explore Conan O'Brien's final full ep of The Simpsons, as we give a timeline of how his unprecedented hiring to Late Night impacted the show. Then we dig into Homer's incredible trip to college,  one of the best eps ever, with nerds, pigs, and top-notch animation. Listen before the crusty old dean finds out!  Support this podcast, hear it ad-free, and get 180+ bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

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out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, and tons more! I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpspsons where all the bra bombs have been disarmed. I'm one of your hosts, the wallet inspector Bob Mackie and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who is here with me today as always? I'm Henry Gilbert, a hot dog admissions officer playing by his own rules. And who is our special guest on the line?

Hi I'm Evan Susser, a pig with powerful friends. And this week's episode is Homer Goes to College. This episode originally aired on October 14th 1993 and as always Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. real world history. Oh boy Bobby, Demolition Man tops the box office, the Salt and Pepper album Very Necessary is released, and the fifth fabulous week of the Chevy Chase show comes to an end. With one more to follow I take it, right? No that is it.

This is the end of the Chevy Chase show. The late night show on Fox that we talked about how on Cape Fear, they have a joke about Fox starting a new late night show with McBain that is new low for Fox at the same time as the Chevy Chase show is doing terribly in the ratings and gets canceled in a month. Perfect coincidence because so much of this episode has to deal with Conan O'Brien and his own show, which is going neck and neck against Chevy Chase This fall season. I'm doing much better, but the reviews were not so nice to code in. We'll talk about it

But I think it was as critically hated as the Chevy Chase show I think people assumed it had just the same shelf life as Chevy Chase's own talk show. And the Salt and Pepper album Very Necessary features their biggest hits Shoop and Whatta Man So they're climbing up the charts with that. Were they a guest on the Chevy Chase show? the Salt and Pepper album, Very Necessary Features. Their biggest hits, Shoop and Whatta Man. So they're climbing up the charts with that. Were they a guest on the Chevy Chase show? I should have checked. I just remember he had Goldie Hawn as his first guest

and did very poorly in that interview. I wanna say one of them or more than one of them became born again Christian or they got more religious. So now I don't think they'll play their more sexual songs anymore Oh how disappointing man demolition man number one in the box office Stallone versus Snipes We've only heard tell of the fake nude Sylvester Stallone that was featured to Planet Hollywood's Evan Have you seen that that in person have you been to those Planet Hollywood's? I have not been to Planet Hollywood in years

I can't speak on that. I thought you were gonna ask me if I'd seen demolition mans? I have not been to Planet Hollywood in years. I can't speak on that. I thought you were going to ask me if I'd seen Demolition Man, which I have, you know, for fans of the Doughboys podcast, which maybe some people are who are listening to this. That has a great joke in it that all restaurants in the future are Taco Bell. I don't know anything about this Planet Hollywood, Sloan. Is that a rumor? What's the story there? So, when he's frozen in the movie to go to jail They had to make like a fake version of him that is essentially nude and then they had that on display at Planet Hollywood for years and friend of the show Scott Gardner and others. They went to a Planet Hollywood

Auction last year that had the full body alone on sale Yeah, I don't know how much it went for though, or how many thousands such a, I would say a priceless piece of movie history. You know, we're doing all these limited series now. I want the prequel that's just about the three seashells. Where they came from, how they're used. It never answered the question.

We need answers. We need answers. Yeah, I love their vision of the future in that the pop songs on the radio are just jingles for commercials, basically. That's what was happening when this truly classic episode of The Simpsons aired in 1993. And joining us for the first time is comedy writer Evan Susser. Welcome to the show, Evan. Hey guys, excited to be here. Get into it. You're the commissioner of the Doughboys as well. We're honored by podcast royalty here.

Great. Happy to be here, guys. We promise we won't need you to mediate fights between us on this. That's not happening. It's usually very civil on Talking Simpsons. On the air and then off mic is when you guys get into it. Okay, well, I can stick around afterwards

if there's any issues you want to get into. Evan, I had heard that one of the things you liked about our podcast, or a very nice compliment you gave us, was as a writer who wrote for a lot of live action comedy, you've now moved into more animation work. Do our insights on animation writing sound good to you? Yes, I said this off mic, but I'll reiterate. So I found your guys' podcast because, Henry, you were on podcast, the ride, a very great appearance. And I started listening and I've been working in animation for a while. And the way you guys talked about animation

and even like picked up things like, Oh, this is ADR. They recorded afterwards. You can tell the lips are moving and oh, they reuse the shot. And I was like, I do not pick up on any of this stuff, despite working in animation. And so I found it very instructive listening to this podcast. I felt like I was learning more about animation despite working in animation,

despite looking at animatics, despite being in the whole process of it. So I really enjoyed the podcast for that reason. Yeah, we are the ADR police on this podcast. We're there to reveal the lies of dubbing to the audience. Evan, you've worked on a number of recent Minion shorts and also the new Minions Ride, VillainCon, Minions Blast. Yes.

Mm-hmm. You know about writing for yellow and blue creatures like the Simpsons. Yes, and obviously, I think they would say that, you know, obviously, Simpsons is so influential in all animation and all comedy in general and there's definitely You know some of that Simpsons DNA Were you aware of the Simpsons connection to the most famous minions and their names have you heard this trivia before Evan? Oh, I don't think I have go ahead hit me with it. Oh Bob. You know it, too Oh, yes

Well Mike Reese who wrote for the show who show ran ran seasons two through four and came back as a writer, is still running on the show to this day. He was pulled in to do some work on The First Suspicble Me and he named the notable minions after Simpsons writers. Oh, that's great. So Bob, Kevin, drawing a blank here. What are the other ones Henry? Stewart.

Oh, Stewart, Stewart, yes. I knew that, I didn't have to write it down ahead of time. So Bob Bendinson, Kevin Curran, and J. Stuart Burns, those are the namesakes of those minions. So I don't know how long he worked on it, but I think he was doing some writing on the first movie. I know that, I don't think this is telling any secrets, that you know they rely on a lot of writers to kind of come in and you know punch things up, and I think that The Simpsons has long been a source where they've looked to see, oh, maybe this is a writer that could help us out for a little bit.

Yeah. In Mike Reese's memoir, I was just rereading, he talks about how he's done punch up for a lot of illumination. But on the first Despicable Me, he saw that Gru kept just saying, like, boys, boys, come here. He just kept calling the minions the boys. And he's like It'd be funnier to have specific names and then he pulled out those names

so then he also said that he couldn't pick Kevin Bob and Stewart from a lineup and he feels like how his dad felt when Mike Reese could identify each beetle by name and his dad was like, I don't know these beetles Are they all the same to me? Well, and also on that I just listened to your podcast theearance about the minions blast and how like on The Simpsons, you wrote a bunch of sign gags for that. Yes, that was a big part of it. It was definitely tapping into that fun of The Simpsons. And yeah, I hadn't really had an opportunity to do that kind of writing before because a lot of that stuff in, because I previously worked in live action. If it's not like a featured bit, it's done by the art department. And if there's a, the art department, sometimes we'll put in jokes.

And sometimes if the writers, you know, a certain show could work, if it's like going to be featured prominently in a shot, then maybe the writers will pitch some jokes and maybe if you're a supervising producer, you can look at. You know what it's going to be, but there's so much stuff going on that usually there's just not time to do that in this and especially the ride because people are going to be staring at these signs for a long time when you're just walking by in a queue. There was really a lot of opportunity to have fun with coming up with signs or gags. At VillainCon, it's kind of a Comic Con-like experience that you're going to.

So we had the convention floor map. That's awesome Well, we know from listening to hundreds of commentaries that those are the hardest jokes to write Those are the jokes that kept them in the writers room until two or three in the morning figuring out what a restaurant should be called What the sign on the church should say so we commend you. Yeah. Thank you one of the Hardest ones was it was like a schedule of speakers and who was going to be and which, you know, what speakers and what would their topics be. And you have a limited amount of words and you have to fill it out. This is a writery episode, which for listeners, I know normally when we get to the start of

a new production season, we detail, you know, Oh, David Merkin took over in this, but we're saving that for the first production episode of season five, which is Rosebud. No details on that this time. In the meantime, go look up our What a Cartoon episode on Get a Life, his previous series. We do a whole bio on Merkin that you'll probably hear a bit of when we cover Rosebud.

Yes, that's important listening and preparation for that one, to know what David Merkin was up to right before The Simpsons. Also because, and I mean it really for this episode, this episode is an episode of Get a Life that stars The Simpsons in it. Like this is so similar. I mean that so complimentary. Homer is Chris Peterson in this show. He's an insane man who thinks he's in a movie. Yeah he's stupider, more insane, more psychotic, and we love season four. We notice the brain drain happening at the

end, the lack of energy as people are leaving the show and getting really worn down. I noticed upon watching this one again, there's so much energy and so much renewed life in season five. As soon as we start off, everything is crazier, everything is more high energy, characters are doing things that would be unthinkable in season four. Even Mr. Burns somehow becomes an even greater supervillain in this episode. And that will continue throughout his run on seasons five and six. Though Evan, in your writing experience,

have you ever had like a between season thing where it's like almost a full reset and it's like 80% of the writers are changeover? No, I never have had that experience. I think that part of the nature of Hollywood now is people are like, if you get on a good show people are sticking around these days. And as television, this is like the days of like the 22 episodes and where it's like really people getting very burned out on working on a show.

And as I think that there are smaller orders for television shows, I don't think people have the same feeling of I got to get off this show. And as I think that there are smaller orders for television shows, I don't think people have the same feeling of, I got to get off this show. It's like, if you're doing 10 episodes, maybe that's half the year. You can maybe take another job. You could maybe, you know, develop your own show. And so there's not as much turnover now. When you hear about turnovers on shows, it's usually because something is not going well. Either the show is not going well, or there is a boss who can't work well with people. It's not a good sign. Whereas this is interesting because the show is doing great and people are loving it, but still writers and maybe that is just the writers are doing so well that they have all these opportunities

that they would be foolish to not explore. Yeah, this is the era in which all of the writers are getting development deals. That's why they're leaving. Now it seems like only already famous people get those deals, or at least that's what's reported on the most. I don't see every writer from a hit show getting development deals with Disney and Fox and all of the other things. Yes, there was a time that if you were on a hit show, every writer got a development deal. And I think unfortunately, it was Seinfeld

where this was ultimately Seinfeld ended and every writer on that show got a huge development deal and not one show emerged from that whole process. And I think that's kind of started the people pausing and thinking, hey, maybe this isn't the best way to develop shows. Yeah I think only Greg Daniels had the big hit show from The Simpsons, King of the Hill and then The Office and so on. And this era was so rich with those deals even John Swartzwalder got his own pilot and we have to cover that when we hit 96 in our timeline. We have to

talk about Pistol Pete, nobody else is talking about Pistol Pete. And this episode is also part of that brain drain because, so Dave Merkin has this reset. He's rebuilding the staff with a lot of his favorites because a lot of guys he worked on previous jobs, but he still inherits Conan who is on a two year contract. And they're working on this episode. It's the first one he assigns to Conan.

And Merkin says, Conan was my rock. Like I was counting on him to be one of our top guys because he is a great writer. He was already an Emmy winning writer at that point and a fun guy in the writer's room and here they make this episode and they even want it to be the rowdy college parody. It's what Fox wants is the opening episode of the season, the debut one, which gets overruled to be the Beatles episode. We talked about that though in Merkin's version of the story,

he says that Conan wanted Rosebud to be the season opener, which is also a truly perfect episode too. I don't have dates on this cause sadly somebody has not uploaded a table draft of this online like so many other scripts we've done but The nearest episode to this is one three episodes later that I do have the table draft for it's dated for late April So to give you a time frame of this this was likely written in March of 1993 It was the middle of April 1993 when Conan does his audition his test performance on the Tonight Show set,

and it is April 26th, 1993 when he is hired. He is hired to host the late night off of The Simpsons. He has to leave it that day. It's the most insane story. And from, you know, working in Hollywood, I truly can't comprehend how this happened. The closest thing that I've, like, peripherally experienced was I was on a sketch team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and one of the actresses on it was Jessica Williams. And she was on the show,

and then very quickly she got a call to audition for The Daily Show and she was within like a month on television as a correspondent for The Daily Show and that felt crazy because it was just like it happened really quickly but yet like that was acting it was performing she was a correspondent it wasn't like she was a host the idea of someone who was just a writer who I don't think he had really any on camera Like he had maybe been in a few Saturday Night Live sketches But not like featured like as like the guy in the background like a non-speaking part

For that person to go and then be the host and also, you know, it's not like now where there are a million late night shows there were three or four late night shows period and that one of them is going to be someone with no broadcasting experience who's just like the funny guy around an office it's crazy that it happened that's what made it fascinating to watch that first year first few years of his show because you're thinking who is this guy what is he gonna show me and it turns out to be things you've never seen before on television. And that's what made him a cult hit.

We were talking about how negative the press was. If you told someone in 93, Chevy Chase will fail, but Conan O'Brien will be on TV for the next 30 years, they would think you were insane. Yes. And I also think that Conan, I was thinking about this with how this episode is considered, and Conan in general, the Simpsons that Conan, I was thinking about this with how this episode is considered and Conan in general, like the Simpsons and Conan, they like very much complement each other

because when Conan was like doing his like wacky and zany comedy on late night, it's this guy you don't know. But if you were like kind of hip to comedy, you'd be like, oh, he's a writer from the Simpsons. So it's funny. And then as Conan has become big, it's like he was a writer from the Simpsons. So it's funny. And then as Conan has become big, it's like he was a writer on the Simpsons. And so I think that further cemented the legacy of the Simpsons is someone who a lot of people would say is a funniest person of a generation was a writer on the Simpsons and helped formed, you know, the voice of the Simpsons that everyone remembers, they kind of like go hand in hand, they kind of lift both of their legacies up in some ways. It was the beginning of Lorne Michaels taking over, well not fully taking over, he basically has.

Yeah. Like he hadn't produced a late night show outside of SNL before and then once he starts with Conan now, he then gets Fallon's show and then Seth Meyers as well. So yeah, I mean, that's like NBC. Yeah. I mean, he's a producer of The Tonight Show. It's hard to do that when you have a brand that's already existing that has lasted a long time.

Usually they don't want to bring on a big powerful producer like Lorne Michaels and give him a cut of it, but he did it. So I have a great quote. Conan has told this story many times, but I like this quote from a Vanity Fair oral history on the first year of Conan on late night, which to give the whole thing a read, it's great. But he says, here's how he found out on Monday, April 26th, 1993. It's the day of a recording of a Simpsons episode.

We're all sitting around the table when someone in the room said, Conan, there's a call for you and I went up and got on the phone and it was my agent at the time, Gavin Pallone and in a quiet, calm voice, he said, you've got 12 30. And then he basically ran into a production office and just like laid on the ground with his head in his hands. And he also said he got a ton of phone calls at home because his personal number was listed in the phone book. He wasn't famous. And by that afternoon, he puts on a suit that Gavin Polone buys for him. And he appears on Jay Leno's Tonight Show to announce that he had taken it over. And well, especially given

their history together in the future, that Conan is basically introduced to America via this Jay Leno clip I have here. Hours ago, just found out about this. The gentleman who is a writer on Saturday Night Live, one of them, right? One of them, he on Saturday Night Live, works on The Simpsons. Lauren Michaels, who you know from Saturday Night Live, will be producing the show. And I thought, come by, nobody knows this guy, nobody's seen him, and I thought you might want to say hello to Mr. Conan O'Brien.

Come on out here. Now, how old are you? What, you're 29? I just turned 30, actually. Oh, that's pretty good. I was still at Chuckles when I was 30, so that's good. See, I'm a gig. Are you excited about this?

Is it fun? Yeah, well, I found out about eight hours ago. I was like eating a big sandwich and they called me on the phone and said, I had this job this is seriously true. And I'm thrilled. I mean, this is, it's something I've wanted to do all my life. I'm ecstatic. And like right here tonight is like your first time on TV.

Well, I wanted to play that clip because Conan is like fresh out of the Simpsons writers room like his first time being on TV. I did not think it gives much confidence to people like this is the guy like he he comes off as nervous. He's not talking well. And then I think when I was just trying to have fun with him, but he does like, oh, this is your first time on TV, right?

It's really something. And there are pals, who would know? And then Conan had to spend quite a bit of time and money extricating himself from his Fox contract. I think he says on the commentary he had to spend over $100,000 of his own money just getting out of the contract. Thankfully, David Merkin, the showrunner,

was willing to work with Conan and was encouraging him, but also telling him, Gary Shanling didn't want to do this. It was offered to him, but he didn't want to do a show every night do you want to do this every night yes and it is a good question and I haven't known any of these late night hosts but I've known people who've worked for multiple of these late night hosts and it really even though it seems so glamorous and cool after about a certain

amount of time it really is you know it's a really intense lifestyle to be doing this thing all the time every time it It really is, you know, it's a really intense lifestyle to be doing this thing all the time, every time. It's very different than, you know, being another kind of comedy star of like a sitcom or a movie star where you have breaks and you can like enjoy being famous doing a show that is basically the same and it's talking to people promoting movies. It can become very exhausting for people who do this job. And Evan, does it sound right to you that like for him to leave that deal, like his two year contract that they had to pay, basically he says on the commentary, and I saw this in other places too, at least $100,000 to get out of the year he owed Fox. And it was Fox who did it, not Gracie.

It seems like pretty petty from whatever business affairs person. I would imagine that that was something that NBC paid that he didn't personally pay, but maybe they didn't. Maybe they said, no, we're paying you what we're paying you and you figure it out. But yeah. Oh, I have an answer to that. Oh okay. This is from the unauthorized Simpsons history which has a lot of like sourced interviews with named people and they talked to Gavin Pallone who was Conan's manager at the time who would go

on to be a very powerful producer of TV in his own right. I think he's either co-creator like executive producer on all of Kirby enthusiasm and Gilmore Girls big-name guy But he names names and says it was a Fox executive by the name of Steve Bell Who insisted that Conan had to pay that instead of trying to have goodwill with a guy who seems like he might be a big Deal in the future instead He's like no you have to pay this now and the Conan said that he split it 50-50 with NBC So NBC paid half of it and Conan had to pay for the right at the time

He's having to start up in May from scratch a late-night show that will begin in September He also has to pay Fox Tens of thousands of dollars to get out of a Simpsons deal. So crazy. And I guess maybe they said, well, we don't want to invest too much money in this guy because who knows if this is going to work out, which is the other part of the story is obviously it's like such a no brainer, like, oh, he should have done it. But there definitely was a version of, especially with him not being famous going into it. It's not like a Chevy chase, but they could have done it for, you know, a being famous going into it, it's not like a Chevy Chase, but they could have done it for a few weeks and been like, oh, nevermind, and get canceled.

I think that now with television and with streaming, usually there's a season of a show. And back in television when things were on network TV, a sitcom would have three episodes and then it'd be like, it's over, and they pull the plug. So there maybe was a little bit of a calculation of like oh I want to do this but also this could be a huge failure and I could be done in a month or two where they could say forget this yeah we just mentioned they gave Chevy Chase five weeks yeah to survive on the air and in case anyone is wondering about the Conan Simpsons timeline he is a writer on the show from brother can you

spare two dimes to Marge on the He is a writer on the show from Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes to Marge on the Lamb. So he's on the show three production episodes into season five before he leaves. He doesn't make it very far into season five. And that executive at Fox, Steve Bell, he died at the age of 66 in 2005. So who's laughing now, huh? I had one other bit of the history that I learned

from The Unautized, which is so they lose Conan. And I do think they're all friends on the commentary, but I think it bothered David Merkin a little to lose one of his top writers. He does imply on the commentary that if Conan wanted to lead to be a head writer for whoever the host was, which was another pitch from Lauren Michaels, that Merkin wasn't going to let him do that or was going to try very hard to talk him out of it. Yeah no he says that he wasn't going to let him on the commentary. I was able to find the commentary which you

know seems kind of crazy but also if you are on a hit show and you have good writers then everyone's gonna be trying to steal them to write on their show and it's kind of you know obviously you don't want to stand in the way of people. But if you're so magnanimous that you're letting everyone go, it's like impossible to get anything done. I get it, even though that would have been a big opportunity. But then it's like, oh, when it's like star of the show, it's like, how can you say no to that? Yeah, it felt like the value of having Conan on was obviously he's a really good writer. But secondarily, he made the writers room fun

He was basically doing his show but for just ten guys writing the Simpsons I'm sure they didn't want to lose that aspect of the Simpsons experience Yes, which is funny because it's like if it's Conan O'Brien It's great if it's someone who's not Conan O'Brien who's you know the way he's described is like oh He was like doing bits and doing his show like all the time. He was on constantly. If it's not one of the funniest people that could be very exhausting to be around. But it sounds like everybody loved it.

And it was very funny. Unauthorized has this bit Brent Forrester. They're talking to him. He's a Simpsons writer for several years, but he tells the story that Conan gets hired to run the Tonight Show. Brent Forrester is contacted by Conan, who's like, I want to hire you as part of the first year. Undersmygle and, you know, Stamatopoulos, all these big name guys.

Because Bob Odenkirk was working with Brent Forrester on early Mr. Show, like this is before Mr. Show is on HBO, but working on that early stuff. He suggests Brent Forrester to it and Brent Forrester in his interview implies that Merkin knew that Conan wanted to hire Forrester and That Berkin was like no, I want Brent Forrester He's replacing Conan on this and I'm gonna give him an offer that he'll have to turn down Conan and Forrester's like yeah, offer that he'll have to turn down Conan and Forster's like yeah I had to take Simpsons over Conan it could all fall apart but I felt like garbage that I told Conan I do his show and then turned

him down. I wish I knew the specifics because I've heard that story too and then I heard from someone who worked on Conan and said that but Brent felt so bad about it he emailed Conan and said that, but Brent felt so bad about it, he emailed Conan and said, "'Hey, here are some ideas for some bits, "'and I wish I knew which bits they were. "'Do you have them?' Thank you. I actually forgot that part of his story,

that he sent him four-bit ideas. Two of them were, "'Hey, what if somebody came in via satellite, "'but you had to just put like a still picture of them "'and you can only move the mouth on it?' And the other one was was if they mated. So two of the breakout sketches of Conan were come up as just an apology.

One of those became a book or at least one book. There might've been more if they mated books. So yeah, Brent Forrester is like pretty important in Conan history. Those were big to us comedy nerds. I feel like they stopped doing them after a few years. Well, not that Robert Smigel was the king of the clutch cargo stuff, but if they made it,

I feel like that kind of stopped after a little while. Yeah, I think that it maybe felt mean at a certain point when comedy kind of moved on from that, but it was all fun. The Simpsons will be right back. Thursday Homer's going to college. You the man, Homer. But will he make the grade? Get by Kirby butt, good butt.

Tension all new Simpsons. Then when Sinbad hires a housekeeper. She wants to steam morning invest. Things eat up. Did you check out my butt? The Sinbad hires a housekeeper, things eat up. The Sinbad Show. And, Wanda's looking for a deadbeat dad. All I remember is a naked booty jumping out my window. In Living Color, followed by Herman's Head.

It's a night of all new episodes Thursday. Okay, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to Election Day and face it between debates, polling releases, even court appearances, it can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Milky. I'm the host of Start Here, the daily podcast from ABC News. And every morning, my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand with just enough context so you can listen, get it and go on with your day. So kickstart your morning. Start smart with start here and ABC News because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming.

A big welcome to the break from Henry Gilbert to my fellow nerds out there and a big thank you to our non nerdy and Wonderful guest Evan Susser. You know him from many episodes of Doughboys He's done. You know him from the Deli Boys Podcast. You know him from all the great comedy he writes. And we were super excited to have Evan on. Follow him on Twitter and all the other cool stuff that I link to in our podcast description. And we love to have Evan back. What a great first time guest. And if you like to support this podcast and hear episodes without any ads like this one or the other ones you heard and hear podcasts a week early you need to sign up at the premium level at patreon.com Slash Talking Simpsons because that is the only place you're gonna hear our monthly Talking Futurama and Talking the Hill podcast that you get a new one each month

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a half hours about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. You are missing out on over 200 hours of exclusive bonus podcasts at that premium level, in addition to all the ad-free stuff at five bucks. So please consider going all the way to 10 bucks a month at patreon.com slash talking Simpson. This episode, Conan pitched it as a hilarious idea of what if Homer thought that going to college was being a bad Animal House ripoff. Merkin on the commentary is kind of funny that he's needling Conan a little about being

a Harvard guy, and not just a Harvard guy, but the president of the Lampoon. I mean, Evandie, the history of Simpsons as a Harvard guy place. Like, yes. What do you think of that as a non Harvard alum? So I got to get to know a decent amount of the Simpsons writers because my good friend and host of the Doughboys podcast, Mike Mitchell was a writer's assistant and I got to visit the writers room, which was crazy for me. That was, you know, obviously something I dreamed about. And I tried to check with Mitch and ask him which writer this was. And he couldn't remember.

But when I first walked into the writer's room, there was the Oxford English dictionary and one of the old time, one of these iconic names, I don't remember who it was, said, yep, all the words are in there. We just have to figure out what order to put them into. And I was like, it's the most Harvard-y joke in the world. But yeah, I mean, it's true. It's been a place that there have been like a lot of Harvard guys, but obviously a lot of really funny stuff.

And also there have been non-Harvard writers as well. But yeah, it's definitely a thing, you know, but also there are a lot of Harvard comedy writers everywhere and that's just kind of part of it. Kurt Simpson's main showrunner, Matt Selman is not a Harvard guy. It's not as Harvard-y as it used to be. And I think I do get the impression that this was also in the unauthorized or this before that I think Merkin also as a non Harvard graduate, you know, a state college kind of guy that he might also be a little defensive of like a college boy, just a little bit of that kind of spirit.

Yeah. And also at this point you start the first generation of Harvard comedy guys and the like the people that came out of the lampoon, it was, oh, these guys went to Harvard and then they discovered this comedy thing. And then they started, you know, and then they became like the Simpsons writers and then they became comedy writers. Now at this point in 2024, you have like little comedy nerds, you can be like, oh, this is the path, you go to Harvard to work on a comedy magazine. And I think that those people, it's a

little less honest, versus like, oh, I'm a smart guy, and I think that those people, it's a little less honest versus like, oh I'm a smart guy and I found comedy in this way. So I don't think it's as significant as it once was. The commentary on this is very crowded out by Conan O'Brien and Jim Brooks. Like this is a star-studded commentary, which means the animators like Jim Reardon barely get to say anything, which is really too bad

because I think this is one of the best looking episodes of the damn show. Oh, Rough Draft Studios in Korea doing an amazing job, especially around this time working on the show. They're just, they're trying to show off because they're a new studio working on things like this and Ren and Stimpy and Soon. I think by this point, Beavis and Butt-Header, that's around the corner for them. It's just gorgeous. And like Homer rarely looks funnier in so many poses than this.

It's just so damn good and it's really too bad. The commentary is tough to listen to. I was able to track it down and listen to it and it's just, it's a lot of sucking up to Conan. We have to note though, whenever you see the big eyed characters, know that Macarena hates it. Although there is one horrible drawing of Homer in this that everyone calls out. I can see it coming a mile away.

I've seen this episode so many times, but this is the big eye, big pupil era. We're fully in here and it's so great. The episode begins with a couch gag of the Monty Python foot flattening, which I do think Merkin is legitimately a huge Monty Python fan who has worked with Eric Idle and other Pythons on other projects. But I do feel like using it on this specific episode is about how nerds

quote Monty Python. That's the lowest of nerd form. Yeah, I was curious if, is it a loving tribute or is it what I was thinking of, you know, and I guess this is a question too, you know, Scott Aukerman saying my wife on Comedy Bang Bang. Like, is it almost like making fun of Monty Python? It's kind of like a little bit of both probably, where it's both doing just funny in the same way that that is funny in Monty Python. But it also, I think it may be a little bit of a joke is, could you imagine if we just

did this foot thing? And that's what we thought was funny to just do a Monty Python gag, basically. I think it may be a little bit of a joke, could you imagine if we just did this foot thing? And that's what we thought was funny, to just do a Monty Python gag basically. BOWEN Up front I was talking about feeling a lot more energy in this production season. That's evident from the intro because as we were getting towards the end of season four we got the extended opening and then the circus couch gag because they were saying all of their shows were coming in short, they were so tired. We have a shortened opening and we have a very short couch gag and the full episode to follow in front of that.

So I feel like Merkin's episodes always went over in terms of comparing him to Algean and Mike Reese. And I think it's something they even said on commentaries. Oh yeah, and this episode has like over two minutes of deleted scenes that are all great, that it captured them here. But we begin with the lazy sleepy time at the nuclear power plant. Homer is saved by a smell hound. Is it Geach the smell hound? I wonder, but

he's prevented from destroying the plant. And I think this shows you where Merkin's at here because they take this opening that was basically the concept of the opening for the burn run for governor episode the blinky episode Except this is so much more silly and cartoony like the inspectors show up and except Burns is not even a little normal like he is a crazy person instantly lying Even Smithers who they rarely sell out at this time. He's sleeping like a dog at burns Yeah, his bribes are presented like a game show. He's got his trap door ready to go He is full burns and yeah, you're right Henry They are not afraid to revisit ideas when they can do them a lot bigger and broader and more absurd

It's both this and the idea of Homer going back to school. They've been done before by the show But here they're so much bigger and zanier. After they chop their way into, it's also just the quickness, like the impact. Like this is one of Merkin's, his era's best qualities that like, he wants to hit a joke hard and fast, like there's not time to think about it. Like Burns making up like we're just the old timey extra chewy cookie factory. That gets cut off with just like, bl. I'm just axe chops to the tour as They are starting up the test Homer has been given a very special job in our first clip here the watchdog of public safety

Is there any lower form of life? Don't worry, sir. I rounded up our last gifted employees and led them into the basement The Homer why are we down here? Oh? Geez, I told you Bernie to guard the B, but why oh you guys are pathetic No wonder Smithers made me head B guy It's cut no way oh we did bad Is there a Homer Simpson present I'm afraid he couldn't be here Oh, we did bad. Hey, oh, hey, come back. Is there a Homer Simpson present? Oh, I'm afraid he couldn't be here.

Yeah, he is. Oh, yes, he's in Geneva, chairing a conference on nuclear fission. Yes, that should stick. Oh, the bee bit my bottom. No, my bottom's big. Great. I love every single second of that

I could have clipped every scene for this episode because I love it so much and that's another idea They're revisiting the idea of putting the undesirables in your workplace Hiding them away Skinner did it with the bullies and barts in the basement But here it lasts for 20 seconds and it's a lot faster It hits a lot harder and they're willing to dispose of the bit once they get every joke out of it. We did bad one of those Simpsons kind of brain worms that just sticks. But why? Which is a good question. Even though he has a much dumber voice, you know, he's the one who this is not adding up for.

Yeah. They're both dumber than Homer. I mean to Merkin really makes over dumb in his years. Yeah. Homer is actively dumber than the two guys, even though he's had B guy. Homer's the one who just trusted implicitly like, yeah, we're going to be and it's Homer who instantly breaks that and freeze it and his waddling run down the hall. Oh God, I love that shot. It's so good. They credit Conan O'Brien for the beep at my bottom. Now my bottom's big. Homer doesn't know the word sting. He can't say the bee stung him. It bit his bottom. And also the just, we've said this many times when there's a duh duh idiot on the show. It's just like, is that voice gone from comedy now?

Evan, can you write a duh-type idiot anymore? Yeah, I feel like it's tough. I love, probably because of The Simpsons, I love dumb characters, characters that are dumb in comedy. And I feel like it's harder to just have characters be dumb. And we'll talk about it more as it goes on, because there is a lot of dumb in this episode, and it's dumb in different ways.

It's really masterful, but doing just that voice, I think, is, it's tough. We can't have Moose anymore from Archie. Yeah, it's true. Poor Moose is out of a job these days. So Homer is then put in his test pod, and I just love, the way his like what the hell are you talking about?

And then just sobbing uncontrollably like Homer's mood swings are so much higher now too. Instantly just he's going to poke blindly at the controls until they let you go which I think I've had that mindset on job tests before. Just like keep to it until at some point they'll tell me to leave if I just keep Poking things and then there's a meltdown of the truck It melts into the ground and Homer comes out of it basically as an incredible Hulk-type monster I also love the delivery like no this can't be happening like it's a 50s B movie. God. It's so good

Yeah, well, it's like there are two jokes already where early in the episode where at first you're like, oh, this is Homer is crazy and then you're like, oh the world is crazy, you know Even starting with like he's sleeping at the beginning and you're like, oh, he's bad at his job That's the point is to establish that he is bad at his job. He's sleeping at his job But then you know Lenny is also sleeping Oh, the boss is also sleeping as his assistant who's sleeping like a dog. And then when they call in, he says, Oh, you've interrupted nap time. So not only is everyone falling asleep, this is actually built in to the rules

of the nuclear power plant and everyone naps and then Homer messes up. But not only like somehow you really can't blame Homer. Somehow this test machine was designed so that it could cause a nuclear reaction and so yes you're just like going back and forth between like are these characters crazy or is the world insane and that's definitely the fun of this era of the Simpsons. That's a great point because we open with Homer nearly falling asleep on the plant destruct button a giant red button in the middle of his console.

Yes. Also a great gag of Burns getting away in an escape pod that he refuses to let Smithers into. And it is shot for shot, the escape pod launching out of the opening of Star Wars with C-3PO and R2 in it, except it crashes. And Burns seemingly is turned into powder by that.

He's fine in the next scene. But I do wonder, Evan, like, a Star Wars reference has to have lost a lot of their cachet in comedy these days, right? Yeah, I think that at this point, you got to dig a little deeper for a Star Wars reference and, you know, find a twist or an unexpected one. But at the time, to see things referenced on The Simpsons was really a novelty and was fun. And it was, especially when all media was not so easily available on YouTube, and that

became part of the fun of it. And then probably in part because of The Simpsons and just because of other trends, now it became everything was a reference to something and that became exhausting. I actually didn't pick up on that, sorry, I was kind of embarrassed. But yeah, I think that, I don't think that says in fashion. Yeah, now Maggie hangs out with BB8.

If you watch the shorts. Yeah. That's right. Right, yes. Well, Bob, you make that great point that late in this production season, though it airs in six, is the joke that only a total dork like Skinner would even know what Star Wars is and care about wanting

Star Wars action films. Oh, right. Yeah, that was media's perspective on the Star Wars fan in 1994. Homer, then after he shakes off turning into a nuclear-powered monstrosity like out of another of those B-boobies, we then learn there wasn't any nuclear material

even in the truck, so it was impossible for that, like this is so insane. I can see why there were some writers on The Simpsons staff who were like, this show has gone too crazy. We've lost reality. And I think we're in minute two so far, and so many things have already punctured the seal of reality.

Yes. And then we get a joke that was dated in 1993 because it had been off the air for several years and just in old Monty Hall reruns, but when they reference Let's Make a Deal Now, I have to remind myself that there has been a Let's Make a deal TV show consistently on CBS for the last 15 years hosted by Wayne Brady.

Oh, that's where he ended up. Okay. Good for him. That's reliable. Whenever I see Wayne Brady in the news, it's just, it's fun things of him telling Bill Maher to shut up or, you know, coming out as pansexual like this. I only see good Wayne Brady news lately so don't let me down Wayne Brady stay good. In this let's make a deal reference again

here's another I think me and Bob both can't say the word box without saying it like in this clip. There wasn't any nuclear material in the truck. Oh, very well. It's time for your bribe. Now, you can either have the washer and dryer where the lovely Smithers is standing, or you can trade it all in for what's in this box. The box. The box. Look, Burns, this is a big problem. You just can't throw money at it and make it go away. Gentlemen, I've decided there will be no investigation now. If you'll excuse me, I'll go away.

You're in big trouble, Burns. Homer Simpson's job requires college training in nuclear physics. Now you get your man up to speed, or we'll be forced to take legal action. Is that so? Well, I have the feeling you'll be... dropping the charges. The painter's moved your desk, sir. Oh, yeah. I also think David Merkin was a big fan of

putting traps in Mr. Burns office. I don't recall that being a thing before in the show. Yeah the hired goons have been replaced by trap doors and suction tubes. Yeah and it also shows just how established Mr. Burns is as a character that this joke works. That you know it's not normal that your boss would have a trap door that you'd be able to kill someone but the audience already knows when he makes the dropping pun then a trap door is gonna go off and then the subversion is oh it's in the wrong place it's like already people know that mr. Burns is like a super villain evil boss that has trap doors and the box the box like God oh it instantly

works then we also see that much like Clarence Thomas, Mayor Quimby is easily purchased with extravagant gifts. Yeah. Way more than a $5,000 fur coat. I just tweeted about it last night, but like I was reading back that article because I wanted to see like, did Clarence Thomas get literally a fur coat as one of his gifts from rich evil guys. And that's how I learned that at the fancy super rich guy lodge he went

to as one of his gifts from the guy who owns a copy of Mein Kampf at that place they have a perfect replica of Hagrid's Hut from the Harry Potter films and I'm like what rich guy over 60 gives a shit about that like why is that there? That's crazy yeah cuz I feel like I don't know how you guys I feel like I was a little too old for Harry Potter and I kind of missed there? That's crazy. Yeah, because I feel like, I don't know how you guys, I feel like I was a little too old for Harry Potter and I kind of missed it, so that's crazy. That it's on a rich guy retreat exclusively for billionaires. Like, that's who it's for.

Maybe it was just to be eccentric. He thought, I need one non-evil eccentric thing, so why don't I build Hagrid's hut? For some flavor. If they build something for Lord of the Rings, I could be like, sure, some old rich guy's gotta be a Tolkien fan, sure. But Hagrid?

Yeah. Also, in my hyperfixation on animation in this episode, this time I noticed that when Quimby says, now I'll go away, his mouth movements are animated on the ones. Like, his mouth chart is overly animated, like, in a technically wrong way, but in a lavishly wrong way. Interesting. So why do you think that is? I think for one second whoever was doing the mouth chart thought it was on like

theatrical level and did it on the ones. This is the movie right? Yeah. I mean sometimes there is a little bit of animation in the animatic so maybe that part was done in the West before being shipped over. Yeah, I don't know how it slipped through, and sadly they're too busy just Jim Brooks chumming around with Conan to ask an animator what they thought about it. Jim Rittern's there, he says about three things. Yeah, but then we cut to Burns' bringing his entire entourage over to Homer's home of lawyers, and this again reminded me of the quote Conan said

that his dream job one time he said would be just sitting in a field and writing lines for Mr. Burns all day long. He loves writing for Mr. Burns more than any other Simpsons character he has said. And I mean, just the way he explains to him over tea and marshmallow squares, that he explains like the stakes of the show.

Like this is the plot of like your entire family's income depends on this. As a way of mocking him setting up the stakes, he then says, also you need to get the Jade Monkey by the next full moon. Yeah, cause it's also, and this is very Merkin-like, the idea that Homer is not going to pass college, is gonna lose his job,

his family will have to move out of the house is so clearly not what the stakes are for this episode. No one thinks that's going to happen. It just is a plot device to get Homer to go to college. It's so clear. And so then the joke is, oh, you must also find, you know, the Jade Monkey, which is equally irrelevant to what will happen in the story. Remember, your job and the future of your family hinges on your successful completion of Nuclear Physics 101. Oh, and one more thing. You must find the Jade Monkey before the next full moon. Actually, sir, we found the Jade Monkey. It was in your glove compartment. And the road maps and ice scraper? They were in there too, sir.

Excellent. It's all falling into place. I love that it turns into a Dutch angle on Burns, and when Smithers interrupts him, it then zips right back out of it. Yeah, they are setting up that there are no real stakes anymore. This is a episode they could have done in season two,

and there could have been deep concern over Homer's future and the family's money. But no, they're throwing that all at the window. We're just here to have fun. Just stay for the jokes. It's going to be fine. And Bart asks, Barber or clown? Now, of course, within a year, Homer will go to clown college, though it won't be until

the 2011 episode Homer Scissorhands that he does become a barber, but he doesn't do it by going to school. He has natural barber talent. We then, also feeling like a mercant check in the boxes of what James L. Brooks says, Simpson's episodes need more of. They check in with Homer and Marge in bed talking about the plot. Brooks always suggested that in the previous four seasons, like know what restate the plot dynamic with Homer and Marge in bed and they use this for a flashback gag which I also really appreciate the Reardon's team basically took the same layout of the shot from Homer talking to the guidance counselor in the way we was

episode and reused it right down to like the color design actually doesn't match with how they do color design by season five of the background. Like it's very orange and purple. And this is where Homer is distracted by a dog that has a ham outside and does not go to college. Yeah, normally these bedroom scenes are to ground the story, to underline the stakes, but here it's a set up a running joke of Homer

seeing an animal outside and then deciding to taunt it or steal its ham away. Now, Greening's nice on this commentary, but on other commentaries, he does grumble that he does not like jokes that Homer is so stupid he gets distracted by a squirrel or something. He thinks it makes Homer too dumb and then it happens like three times in this episode.

Evan, is there a line of like, this is too dumb for a character for you sometimes? Yeah, I mean, well, I think we'll and we'll get to this later with, you know, some of the other lines. But I think that in general, like, it's always funny when characters are dumb, but hopefully they are dumb in specific ways. Now I would argue with Homer, they kind of did her and that he is like easily distractible, that's part of it. But I guess just jumping around like when Mr. Burns tries to kill someone with a baseball bat and then even though clearly failing thinks he's done it and tells Smithers to send his widow you know flowers, that's dumb. But it

also very much is it's more that Mr. Burns is so delusional about his own power. So it's like dumb in like a specific kind of way versus just anybody dumb. So I think that it's very fun. I'm probably the wrong person to ask because I like when characters are dumb. And we then fade from the old trash can being thrown away to Homer now tossing away all of his applications

in present day. He's having real trouble with it. Lisa asks him to list his three favorite books. One is TV Guide, which I was shocked to see is still technically published, apparently. Bob, I always forget that our horrible former old employer owns TV Guide as a brand and licenses it to the magazine publisher.

I'm sure that was a wise investment. It's owned by Fandom Inc. As well, then they ask Homer, his second book he names is Son of Sniglets, a joke that makes no sense to anybody now. I can tell everybody I can define Sniglets. Sniglet is a term invented by comedian Rich Hall, who looks suspiciously like Mo, by the way,

Mo the bartender. It was created for the TV show Not Necessarily the News, and it's essentially a dictionary, sorry, a term invented for when a dictionary does not offer the word you're looking for. And I wrote down one of them. One of them is snackmosphere, which is the pocket of air found inside snack and or potato chip bags.

So that's what a sniglet is. And this joke, sometimes I have this, especially with Simpsons episodes of like, where I like love all the jokes. If there's a joke I don't get, I still, what? So the joke is, that's what a sniglet is. So son of sniglet would be like, sometimes like the son of James Bond is like a shorter, you know, lesser version of that. Like, what is the joke exactly? I still don't... Even knowing what a sniglet is, I'm still a little confused by it, but whatever. It goes

like... I assume it's the second book in the series and Homer was not a fan of the first Yes, okay Unbelievably Sniglets were so popular that it had a multiple book series like more Sniglets got it So it's like the seventh version of the long-running Sniglet Franchise it's for some reason the only book he's read. Okay. I think Katherine Hepburn's me is just a funny choice for Homer It's not a notable Autobiography in any sense. I was looking up reviews of it. It seems fine

It seems to be full of a lot of fun stories, but it's weird that Homer would be way into this 1991 Katherine Hepburn Autobiography and it's just kind of a joke at celebrity that like is that a book? No, is that a book and then one that is clearly a book? But no, it doesn't count because it's written by a celebrity It's a and that out of all celebrities is Katherine Hepburn that Homer loves so much Well, so that not necessarily the news reference has career meaning to Conan because that was his first Professional writing job him and Greg Daniels were hired to it straight out of Harvard as a writing team Him and Greg Daniels were a writing duo getting paid. This I got from Mike Reese's memoir because he

also was a writer and not necessarily the news. He says that Conan and Greg Daniels got hired at scale, splitting it as a writing team. And he called that the greatest deal in comedy writing history. Yeah, I would say so. And you get not only Greg Daniels and Conan O'Brien but Al Jean, Mike Reese, George Maya, Rob Lzebnik and Ian McStone-Graham all wrote for not necessarily the news. Something that you probably can't watch at all anymore even though it ran for like seven years on HBO. Then Homer gets to his essay which is, it was the most I ever threw up and it changed my life forever,

which really impresses Bart. Bart loves this story. And Homer's holding his pencil like a four-year-old. Evan, you're a father. Did your child hold a pencil better than Homer? Yes, she does at this point. I have two kids and the younger one, who's a year and a half, that's kind of how he would hold it.

That's how Homer holds it. It's kind of holding it back. We're using his pinky as the reinforcing finger for the pencil. And he's laying on the floor too to write it. This is where Homer decides he's gonna send it in and the joke is that in a way that will make no sense to anyone under 35, Homer's eyes are red

in that crazy picture too, which is because it's an overexposed photo. So, you know, yeah. But that makes no sense to kids today. Yeah. Do you still get that with the flash, the red eyes, or not? I think that if you iPhone, they auto-correct it, so it's like you wouldn't even see it. It's a nice touch to make it even less flattering. This is also, again, we have seen Matt Grating hates food monster Homer, and this is Homer eating an entire birthday cake. And I just love the line, reading his essay

would only waste valuable seconds. So then we cut to Bart watching TV, and they have a good little ADR joke that it's the taste of Worcestershire sauce, mmm, steaky, it's an soda. And Bart is just frozen for about eight seconds on the screen. The funny thing about that joke too though is that kind of is what food and beverages

have become. Every kind of bullshit. I would totally believe that there was an A1 soda. Every brand that you know of one thing, now it does another thing. You can get Oreo flavored jelly beans and everything is everything else now. Yeah, I think there's always some spirit will put out like the Cheetos flavored vodka or similar.

And that Jones Soda Company, I don't know if they're still around, but they made Thanksgiving dinner soda. They would make meaty sodas. I feel like those have been drink or stinks, or drank or stinks. Drank or stink, yes. Yeah, that's right.

But this covered up a deleted scene, which I think it's funny. I get that it's not as funny as everything in this, but it still has A plus animation. You should look it up. But I have a quick clip of it here that what Bart is watching in the deleted scene is Krusty doing a man on the street bit at

a shoe store called shoe King and this is the little exchange. Well it says here you're the shoe King. Is there a shoe Queen? How about a shoe Parliament? I do not know what you're saying. Be funny you're on TV. That's the best they came up with. A man on the street that doesn't work. I do not know what you're saying. Be funny, you're on TV. Ha ha! That's the best they came up with. A man on the street that doesn't work. So Homer rushes in, he says he has to watch a program on Campus Life, and boy oh boys, this is Conan O'Brien

writing a perfect sketch making fun of Animal House ripoff. Especially the line, as you know I am the president of the United States. That does feel very super Conan E. Yeah. When they say chug a lug house, it makes me think the name of the movie should have been chug a lug house, not school of hard knockers.

Also of note to Simpsons fans, this, I believe is the only time we see a movie starring Corey Masterson, who is the Corey that Lisa is obsessed with. Wow. Yeah. I was looking into this and he appears in quotes one more time in Bark It's Famous as a poster but after that the Corey they're slamming the door on the Corey era. Frankly it feels a little out of date in 93 to be doing Corey Haim, Corey Feldman stuff but this is really I guess the only live-action appearance of Corey within animation, I guess. And just the writing of Dean Bitterman and that a bra bomb is such like a lame, like, end of the movie thing.

Like, it's not that funny and they hold on it for so long and then it's like, oh, it's so great that the president is partying down. His bras fall everywhere. Like, what a great ending to your movie Homer loves it He's like take that bitter mid like he hates the deed They're setting up the Dean hatred so early to and Dan castlin out his performance in that line I mean like take that Dean bitterman you could Imagine a lot of other reads that you could do it, but just how angry this movie is clearly a comedy He is not enjoying it as a comedy. He is fired up and angry about it. It's such a funny way to read it.

The episode is also really interesting. You know, the I know it's like Animal House ripoffs. This was one reason when I first saw this episode, because Animal House was my dad's favorite movie, which was funny. And he would show me like clips of it, like the appropriate parts were my very young age. So when I saw this, so like the food fight scene and not the date rapey scene, but when I saw this,

I almost felt like, oh, mom and dad are fighting. I was like, oh, this one comedy thing I like is making fun of another comedy thing that I like, and I don't know how to feel about it. And it's also interesting because Homer very much is You know an outgrowth of the slobs versus knobs kind of character. So of course he loves This kind of movie because it's what he imagines himself to be And this is really where it becomes a get a life episode

I know this is Conan's idea, but it really meshes with David Merkin's old sitcom in that Chris Peterson was a but it really meshes with David Merkin's old sitcom in that Chris Peterson was a deranged man who just lived in a fantasy world to escape his actual loser lifestyle. And this could have totally been written for Get a Life Season Three. Chris Peterson, Tens College,

thinks it's going to be like Animal House, but finds out it's more like a more 90s politically correct campus. Yes. Yeah, they make sure on the commentary to say, we're making fun of Animal House rip-offs because Animal House is still very, you know, it's a respected comedy institution. And especially, I know like a Harvard graduates of that age love Animal House because it is pretty much a Harvard movie too.

It's a lampoon movie or at least in branding. So I wonder if the comedy writers who went to Harvard in the 80s and 70s that they are guys who thought we have weird the slobs at Harvard because we're the dorks who got in on academic achievement surrounded by the rich kids who got in on you know the family name. You know I haven't watched Animal House in a long time. I remember liking parts of it of course like John Belushi is like one of the most amazing performers ever, but some of it felt like comedy nerd homework to watch.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's almost all comedy. If it gets old enough that it feels like homework to watch, it's like Harris Whittles, who was great comedy writer, comedy mind. He said that there are like only five funny comedy movies at any time because comedy immediately gets like old and corny. And you like see like I think Dr. Strangelove was one of these like, it's not good. You like actually turn it on.

You get bored, which, you know, it is hard with movies. And that's what's kind of fun is that like something that is funny is immediately or within five or 10 years, mockable and groany and annoying. And that kind of is how it goes. Yeah. The school of hard knockers thing and Homer's idea of college really feels inspired by revenge of the nerds or that the animal house and things that no one ever talks about. Like the mad magazine movie up the Academy directed by Robert Downey senior.

I haven't seen that. I've only heard about how infamous it is, but I encourage everyone to look up. Alfred E. Newman's appearance in that movie is horrifying. They get prosthesis, they put it on a guy's face, and he's in the movie. It will give you nightmares. Wow.

I'm glad too, out of all the stuff they're parodying, there's no sex romps in this episode. None of that. Yes. Which is also interesting in the commentary. One story that kind of gets quickly stepped over is that Conan tells a story that he based this on three nerds he knew at Harvard who used to drop phone books on the ground so that the girls below them who would show up in their nightgowns and complain, and then they would ogle at these girls.

I think kind of telling that that kind of more lascivious, less lovable quality of the nerds gets completely taken out of the nerds that we see portrayed. Conan tells a very dark joke after that. He says, and then they would murder the women. Yes. We didn't put that part in. So Homer gets his college rejection letters in the women. Yes. We didn't put that party. So Homer gets his college rejection letters in the mail. He's only excited that he also gets a flyer for a hardware store.

And this is when Burns exacts his power over. Well, I do love Homer's new man to being told that he doesn't know what he's going to do is another great line. Dan Casleneta kills it in this episode. He is so good. He's always good, but God is he good here. So then we hear that Burns, he's got a chair at the Springfield College. He can get Homer in. We cut to his chair.

It is an amazing design on his gigantic chair. And this is when Burns decides he's going to reenact the scene from the Untouchables, the Brian De Palma Untouchables. Well, you know, fellas, I look at the admissions board a lot like a baseball team. You all like baseball, don't you? Yeah.

Yeah, that's a true Mary Harwell fan. Yes, well, to have a successful baseball club, you need teamwork. Not some hot dog admissions officer playing by his own rules! Excuse me, what are you doing? I'm giving you the beating of your life! Look, If, stop that. If you wanted him that badly, why didn't you just say so?

Smithies, dismember the corpse and send his widow a corsage. I'm a college man! I won't need my high school diploma anymore! I am too smart! I am too smart! I am too smart! I am too smart! S-M-R-T! I mean S-M-A-R-R-T! That's all Dan there. They kept in his ad-lib. Well, not even ad-lib. He accidentally sings it wrong, not intentionally. And they make it longer, which then makes it even funnier joke too because Homer is burned down his house. Like the entire wall is on fire by the end of the scene. It's a nice touch that it's a GED, which he got last season. Is great continuity, yes. You're so right. They're elevating Burns. He is now willing to at

least attempt to beat a man to death in public. Yes. And expects Smithers to dismember the corpse for him too. A small subtle thing that I love and it's a little bit of parroting the movie scene, but I just love that he's like, I think of it like a baseball team. The loop group, everyone, oh, baseball, We like baseball. Like this is like the most overdone metaphor in the world that people are very interested in. Yes. That burns is he's not only so weak that he can't hurt a guy with a baseball bat, but the exertion of barely tapping his skull with it kills him. Like gives him a stroke basically. And he falls to the ground

in horrible pain from this exertion of holding it up. Like that, God, that makes it so good. Now I will say when this scene started, I got a little confused and I thought it was going to be, I'm not made of international airports, which is a joke that comes with the riding danger field episode, which is another great, what you guys were talking about, where they will go back to the well of similar situations and also another funny joke. Yeah, I thought it was gonna be him saying, I'm giving you the thrashing of a lifetime, but that's actually Rosebud,

which is the episode they produced before this. So, Byrne's attempting to kill people with his bare hands was going to be a running joke in season five. I just rewatched The Untouchables a few months ago because I was visiting my mom and stepdad and it's a real stepdad movie to want to watch The Untouchables. It is also like, I don't love watching movies

with my stepdad and mom just because they always turn back on motion smoothing on their TV. Like I've just given up on it. So I had to watch The Untouchables with motion smoothing. It is amazing like cinematography and it's a fine movie, but man man Kevin Costner is so boring in it. He is such, everybody else is great, but he is so fucking boring. That's my review on it, but De Niro's fun.

De Niro's still good in the beating to death scene, especially. And I feel like he for real shaved his head for the movie too, which I bet he wouldn't do that for a movie these days I'm for dirty grandpa for maybe Don't count him out yet. Mm-hmm So Homer gets in to college and he explains to Marge as they arrive any school with no motto They have a Latin motto contest They have another great hiding of a joke of Abe popping up to just be the button on a scene of like, oh I wish my dad was here, he just goes like

hey or whatever. But this time Homer interrogates how he possibly could pop up for this joke. Like they are testing the joke of like wait how did this joke work? How long have you been back here? And his sheep is like three days. But then they arrive at school and Homer explains the importance of hierarchies at the college to Marge. Nerd! Oh, Marge, that isn't very nice. Marge, try to understand.

There are two kinds of college students, jocks and nerds. As a jock, it is my duty to give nerds a hard time. Hey pal, did you get a load of the nerds? Pardon me? This jock does not know what he is talking about. Nobody cares about these things at an actual college and Homer can't understand it immediately. I mean also just the shot of Homer screaming nerd. That is always great to see on social media. I love seeing it every time, usually in response to me saying something, which is strange. I don't know

why. Also uncommented on that Homer considers himself a jock despite really having no athletic ability or anything like that. Yup. Homer's like, well, I'm not a nerd, so I must be a jock. He's the slob. Like he's booger is what he is of Revenge of the Nerds to reference a thing that also nobody watches anymore. I would say the original is more cancelable than Animal House 2. Yeah. I mean both have problems. They both have sex crimes that occur.

Yeah. So Henry, you're not counting three or four. I see. Just because they only aired on television. You know what? Now you mentioned three or four, whichever one has the trial in it. I remember that they have the scene where Anthony Edwards' character is supposed to come back triumphantly and everybody treats it like, oh, you're back, Anthony Edwards' character, but it's not Anthony Edwards. They had to get a stand in for it. And it's just like, oh, come on, you just have to cut this scene if you can't actually get him back for it. It seemed like they refused to do a rewrite,

and they get to the day, and they're like, oh, we couldn't get him. He lowballed us. The character could have just phone called in, right? Yeah, like Hallie Sheedy in Short Circuit 2. I just remember Michael McKeon in a robot. I don't recall any women in that film. Oh no, well, that's the thing.

She's in the first one with Steve Gutenberg and neither appear in the sequel, but she like recorded one like line for the movie that Johnny Five plays for her to say, well, we sent him away to the big city to see you guys and hang out with you. See you later. So technically she's in short circuit too. Homer then gets a little tour of the college, but that's in the deleted scene. A good joke here. This is the student dining hall, where each day our kitchen prepares two tons of powdered

eggs, four tons of soy burger, and three tons of mock apple filler. Filler. That much powdered eggs I like that number. There's a bit of a payoff to that cutscene in the credits or over the credits one of the stills you see is people having a food fight and it's with the items they mentioned in the deleted scene. Oh wow you're right yeah that's good catch. You don't need that to set it up it's just they're throwing goop at each other in the scene over the credits. Also they have a mostly visual gag which is that they are doing a Spanish language course by watching a bumblebee man short

which you can't learn Spanish that way returning to this after the worst people on earth have been whining about college campuses I like the approach here where it's looking at, okay, campuses are more politically correct now in 1993, but all the jokes are at Homer's expense. He wants colleges to be as media portrayed them in the 70s and 80s, but he's seeing like they're worried about underage drinking and all of these other social concerns now more than ever. And then Homer's wrong for wanting it to be a sex romp, a

drunken sex romp I should say. As Homer is, you know, he spikes the punch and everybody rejects that. And then, my mom had to explain that to me. One, I didn't know what a flask was, and two, and I mean when I was 11, not yesterday. And then two, what spiking the punch even was as an idea. But I love that the guy spits it into a handkerchief, like he won't even swallow it.

He is so disgusting Oliver thinks I mean this is another Perfect line that Chris Peterson absolutely would say Somebody squeezed all the life out of these kids and unless movies and TV have lied to me. It's a crusty bitter old Dean And we meet Dean Bobby Peterson who not only wants to play hacky sack with everybody But he played bass for the pretenders as well. He's a really cool guy. And it's just Hank Azaria using his normal voice.

He's got to do so many wacky voices for the show. But when they were thinking, what does a cool young hip guy sound like? They just have Hank be himself. Marge, someone squeezed all the life out of these kids. And unless movies and TV have lied to me it's a crusty bitter old Dean. Hi there, hello I'm Dean Peterson but you can call me Bobby. I just want you to know if you ever feel stressed out from studying or whatever I'm always up for some hacky sack or hey if you just want to come by and jam I used to be the bass

player for the pretenders. Boy I can't wait to take some of the starch out of that stuff shirt. Homer just seems like I can't wait to take some of the starch out of that stuff shirt. Homer just thinks like, I can't wait to take some of the starch out of that stuff. He refuses to view the Dean as anything but a jungle-ug house character. Yeah, so clearly you could imagine him being like, what? That's what the Dean's like, but nope, he's still. Thanks to see what he thought it was going gonna be like. He still believes it is. Stubborn to the point of insanity.

It's not even just stupid. He's like, yeah, this guy said he's the Dean. I mean, also, again, when Homer's watching Hard Knockers, he just instantly goes like, oh, I hate that Dean. Hearing the Dean, he just hates him instantly. Just the name Dean makes him furious. That's something I did love on the TV show community that they knew all this Dean baggage. They instead made

their Dean like the nicest person in the world who really just wants to be everybody's friend. That was their play on the Dean concept. But here the Dean is a cool dude. Homer refuses to accept it though. He heads into his one class he has to take, which they do make it clear. Homer just has to accept it though. He heads into his one class he has to take, which they do make it clear. Homer just has to pass this class. He does not need to graduate four years of college. And it's an intro class to 101. He's there with a bunch of people who are 18 years old. A great gag that Homer is at the very back of a gigantic class. He does not understand

a joke about the word nucleus. And then another great joke that he is the only person laughing at him dropping his notes. He is not nervous or self conscious that he is the only one laughing and he laughs far too long at it too. In Homer's defense of the two things that happen someone making a corny pun or a professor dropping their notes, if those were to really happen, the dropping the notes is much funnier. These students are all suck-ups laughing at their professor's joke. I also love that Homer, he's offered like, yeah, stay after and review the class, like it really is just

the second half of the class. And then Homer then gives an exit line that would be accepted in a college comedy of Kiss My Curvy Butt, Goodbye, and no one reacts to it. Another hallmark of this episode is that everyone is so benevolent in giving to Homer and he just shuts them all down because they are what he's portraying in his mind as the characters from this movie he thinks he's in.

That also is the very Chris Peterson, get a life thing of like everybody is nice to him and he's like, yeah, fuck you. Like he just, he hates everyone giving him a second and third chance. So Homer runs outside, chases a squirrel for a little while and Dan's giggling is very funny. But Jim Riddin admits on the commentary

when he gets to speak, the director, he framed many jokes of Homer through a window. It does get a little repetitive, but they're funny every time. I wouldn't cut a single one. Then Homer has turned his half of the bedroom into a college dorm room. Cinder blocks on shelves, which I thought looks so cool as a kid. I feel like a sellout surrounded by my Ikea bookshelves instead of a cinder block.

He's missing the cable spool table to complete the look. Yeah. And I guess these posters were the common eighties dorm room posters. of a cinder block once. He's missing the cable spool table to complete the look. Yeah. And I guess these posters were the common 80s dorm room posters. In my time, it was the naked women whose backs had the Pink Floyd albums painted on them, the two women kissing, Scarface, Fight Club, maybe Matrix is thrown in there. Yeah, yeah. Definitely the two women kissing one I remember seeing.

It wasn't so much that they just put it on the wall of like Scott Pilgrim in that comic. I'm like, yeah, you're a loser 20 something. You have this black and white photo of two women kissing. So that's the woke agenda for you. Replacing WC Fields is my little chickadee poster with two women kissing. I don't know what that ballet poster is. I think they just invented it.

It doesn't seem like a common poster. And the Einstein with the tongue sticking out, that is from his 72nd birthday party, March 14th, 1951, celebrated Princeton university. So it is like a university photo too. Though I couldn't find that ballet one either. I couldn't place it, but I mean, Evan, were you in a dorm room and do you recall any of your posters? Yeah, I think I had a Bob Dylan one. That's kind of the like, you know, familiar one.

I think I had the Simpsons, the whole like, big cast of all the characters one. I think that might be it for my posters. What about you guys? Did you have any? I had a Fight Club poster in my childhood bedroom that I lived in while I went to college. Okay, perfect. Commuter school. My bedroom during college at home

was all comic book posters, in Simpsons posters, but the ones that were the fold out from the calendar. But the cliche movie poster I had was Kill Bill Volume One. And that was the poster I had, yeah. What do the kids have up today, I wonder? What are their posters? SpongeBob, like eating ass to steal a joke from Nick Weiner poster I had. Yeah. What do the kids have up today? I wonder, what are their posters? SpongeBob, like eating ass to steal a joke from Nick Weimer if I can.

Yeah, that's a good question. I don't really know. I'm not plugged in with the college age kids. I've got younger kids. I've got no idea. Well, also the joke of Homer thinking it's supposed to be like a college movie. I did have that with my college age pals.

They, old school had just come out when we went to college and there were people like, oh, yeah You're like Frank the Tank like they did beer bongs because Frank the Tank did them in the movie Not because of any particular love of a beer bong, right? Well, it's like that interesting thing with college movies people like the Simpsons and they laugh at the Simpsons, but they don't think it's instructive of how to be a father with Homer Simpson. But people laugh at college movies, like old school and Animal House,

and they like them and they understand them to be comedies, but they also do think, well, this is what you do. You have toca parties, you do beer bombs. And so there's a sense with college movies that people can take in as instructive in a way that you don't watch a comedy and say, oh, you act like that person. But there's something about college comedies and I guess the hangover too that people... To this day, you go to Vegas, you are surrounded by people reenacting the hangover.

You know, Van Wilder destroyed a generation of students. Yeah. Let's not forget about the rise of Taj. I haven't. of students. Yeah, let's not forget about the rise of Taj. I haven't. And now Van Wilder is still conquering the box office. He really is. We could have stopped this. We laughed too hard at Van Wilder. Now we've got Deadpool forever. But yeah, so we then Homer, his cinder blocks also prevent a children's hospital from being built So apparently many children die again another one where it's like

The world is just insane But you know for cinder block stop a hospital and then the guy says I'll have to tell the children As if the children are right next door on you know portable IVs or something, and there's now a prison and then they'll have to die is I guess what's kind of an implied joke is I will have to tell them because a man stole four cinder blocks. That's it kids. Sorry.

Yeah, that choice is perfect. The joke is not there's no hospital being built. It feels like the children are just waiting off screen. Yes. And the hospital takes years to build. Yes. And certainly if, you know, maybe it's one room smaller, they could make so much of it. But it's been canceled entirely. There's so many facets to this joke. Then we cut to a demonstration in the physics class, Homer insists he knows how to run a proton accelerator, which his smug acting is more of my favorite, like wonderful animation. Like Homer is extra fat, extra bulgy eyes. His finger twiddling is just, every inch of

it is perfect. And then just the hard cut to a second meltdown into the building. Like you don't even need the, cause you saw it in Act One, they can just cut to the entire building being green and everybody running out of the place. And the nuclear decontamination guys know his name. Thanks Homer. And of course, Dean Peterson, this is explaining every joke I know, but you have to because they are worth dissecting. Dean Peterson does not blame Homer for the thing Homer did do. And Homer reacts to it as if a prank war has been going on, which Homer did not do a prank. He just fucked up using a proton accelerator and nearly killed everybody.

And more of people just being too nice to Homer. The Dean says, I personally researched this myself. Here's a list of tutors that will help you. Over just instantly crumples it up. And then in our third window joke, Homer then also prank calls him very weakly to call him a stupid head. He instantly knows it's Homer and Homer just runs away screaming. So then we get our nerds and Homer heads to room 222, another reference that makes no sense to anybody who didn't watch TV in the 70s, because that is one of the earliest created Jim Brooks shows. The dramedy Room 222 ran 113 episodes, basically like never, maybe it was on Naked Knight a little when we were kids.

I really don't remember seeing it on cable. Yeah, I don't recall it. I do love these three nerds and their designs, although one of them is an old design they're reusing. So Gary, who is the black nerd of them is an old design they're reusing. So Gary, who is the black nerd of the crew, he was once a white character. He's a caricature of Rich Moore, one of the Simpsons directors, who would go on to win an Oscar by the way. So he is forever living on as Gary in so many background scenes and so many future episodes

of The Simpsons. It was to save time on designing a third nerd. I mean, Jim Reardon says it was partially to roast his friend Rich Moore of like, oh, you need a third nerd. Well, let's just use Rich Moore's design. That works perfectly fine as a nerd. It's good to see nerd diversity though,

because there's a black nerd, there's a large nerd, and there's a red-haired nerd. And yes, I said it when we covered the poochy one. I know I'm Doug the nerd. Like I'm that guy. Like I know I'm him. I'm much skinnier than him now. Yeah. But it really is interesting, you know, in the timeline of nerds and like depictions of nerds.

Like this is before like, oh, nerds are cool. We're celebrating nerds. Even though obviously this episode works, so people know, oh, it's not like they're jocks and nerds, but there's no real sense of like, actually being a nerd is cool. And like, you know, and also like nerds have not taken over pop culture. Like everybody likes Star Wars. Everyone likes Marvel movies. There still is the concept of being a nerd. So it's interesting. These nerds are only losers. They're only to be laughed at. There's no turn that they're like, actually, we could learn something from them. They're also like selfish jerks. There's no nice side to these guys.

We mentioned it last time. Nerds that quoted Monty Python. We are them today. We're quoting the Simpsons. We're building a life out of quoting the show. So they didn't have podcasts. These three guys would be doing a Monty Python podcast if the equipment and infrastructure was available to them.

But even that, even quoting, you know, Simpsons, Simpsons memes are just everywhere. would be doing a Monty Python podcast if the equipment and infrastructure was available to them. But even that, even quoting, you know, Simpsons, Simpsons memes are just everywhere. Like it's not like only something that comedy nerds like yourselves who have a podcast talking about, you know, the Simpsons does like there are like nights who say knee, the equivalent of that with the Simpsons just as does happen in pop culture with obscure references to Simpsons jokes. You know, I could imagine like Kamala Harris posting Homer walking out of the bushes. It is just in culture now that it's like kind of mainstream to be a nerd about comedy in that kind of way. It just, you know, it really is. It was not

the case. Well, Henry and I also spent a lot of time quoting UCB sketches that no one has seen so That is nerdy. I love sushi for one example. Yeah But yes, let's meet our trio of nerds Hi gang intruder alert intruder alert stop the human eye Look I'm supposed to get a physics tutor. Well, you come in the right place, then. There's one thing we know. It is science. And math. And the worst of every mighty python routine. We are the Knights, Poussey. Knee! Knee! Knee!

Knee! Knee! He-he. Knee. We played Dungeons and Dragons for three hours. Then I was slain by an elf. Listen to yourself, man. You're hanging with nerds. You take that back! Homer, please. These boys sound very nice, but they're clearly nerds.

Really? But nerds are my mortal enemy. Dad, nerds are nothing to fear. In fact, they've done some pretty memorable things. Some nerds of note include popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher, rock star David Byrne, and Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Oh, not Souter!

Oh, no. More Homer history there than he knows his Supreme Court justices. I always forget about that, oh, no, at the end. Yeah, and D&D has become so huge. Everyone loves Critical Role, there was Harmon Quest. It's the basis of so many things you can just watch streaming these days. Yes, the nerds have taken over with these. Same with like, they reference a super deep

like, Berserk is not a famous arcade game. And here they are referencing it. I clipped out the little lines here. In 1980, if you could hear a video game talk, you were impressed no matter what it said. And you'd never forget the line. Quick little bit here. Computer alert. Computer alert. Cata humanoid.

Cata. Incuder. There you go. That's technically what they're saying. I think Berserk is only known for that and that alone. I think so. I mean, I did love Bonnie Python. I think as a kid, I do think I

probably got into it because of jokes like this that said, Oh, this is the comedy nerd thing to do or older brothers of friends were like, Oh, here, let's reenact the entire dead parrot scene together like that kind of thing. How much was Python part of your guys's comedy nerd upbringing? For me, not at all. And probably because of this episode, I think because of this episode, I was like Dungeons and Dragon and Monty Python. Those are a bridge too far. And so I was not into either of those till later. I watched Life of Brian definitely and Holy Grail to some extent.

The sketches, obviously the like five that everyone knows are good, actually sitting down and trying to watch an episode of Monty Python, but also much like, you know, early Saturday night live or anything is pretty hard to do, but not particularly significant to me. What about you? I would hear references to Monty Python on this and other things and, you know, see the movies in the video store, and I didn't know what Monty Python on this and other things and see the movies in the video store. And I didn't know what Monty Python was, but it felt like something I should like. And I remember asking my stepdad one day, who was Monty Python?

I thought he was a man. I thought he was a man who did comedy. And he explained to me, well, there was a show in the UK and it was very funny and influential. But there was no way for me to watch it. So as a kid in high school, I rented the movies, but I can only speculate as to what the show was. And I never actually got around to watching it when it became much more available. So I have not seen one episode of the Monty Python show, but I've seen all the movies. When I finally watched Holy Grail and got to the Night's Insane EC, and I instantly thought like, oh, it's that Simpson scene. But I did not think

got to the night to say me see and I instantly thought like, Oh, it's that Simpson scene. But I did not think learning all of the lines of like, we want a shrubbery and cut it down with a herring. Those kinds of lines. I didn't know I was a loser to know those lines. That was what the joke is there. I also really did like in the UK office, they showed you in the United Kingdom back then too, they have a joke that only the loser of David Brent is quoting Monty Python still in like 2002 and everybody thinks it sucks and is like, he named his trivia team after the dead parrot sketch. What a loser. One little animation touching that dinner scene that I love, when Bart calls out Homer

for hanging with nerds, he says, you take that back and he sticks a knife in his face. And as he draws the knife away, Bart starts rubbing his neck thinking my dad was going to slash my throat open. That is pretty funny, you know, when you compare it to like, well, yeah, he strangles him, but it is like, you take that back. Like he is so intense putting that knife in his face. And David Byrne would do the Simpsons in 2003. We just talked about that episode. We cut to Homer being tutored, which for him is lying down and closing his eyes and not listening. And he just says he's

going to write down all the periodic tables, including all lanthanides and actinides. Good luck. A classic nerd like, oh, like cracking up at something that is not funny to anyone else. Yeah, I think so. Whenever I see the periodic table, which is not that often these days, and I see the little floating tiny one underneath, I do think of this joke. That's the only reason I know that lanthanides and actinides is because of this. I'm sure it got me some points on chemistry quizzes in high school. Then Homer decides he's gonna have

a rockin' college road trip, which this is more of the perfect, David Merkin loves F-U jokes of setting up a thing that would be fun to parody on a regular sitcom and then not doing it, which is this could be an entire act of Homer tries to do a road trip with the nerds. That is rich comedy ground. They give you two seconds of it and the joke mainly is that they sucked at it and it was boring. That

Homer he marches out. He's going to like they first have to pack their snow pants just in case. No, wait, why? Because they're going to go somewhere that involves snow, but yes, very funny that they all have to pack their snow pants, and he has to bring the kids. And Gary spilled his ear medicine, another perfect line to that. Which also ear medicine is a great specific. And when the kids come with them, they are so nerdy that even Lisa is sick of them.

Come on guys, look at yourselves! All you do is study. I'm gonna show you the true meaning of college. We're gonna go out and party! Wait a minute, I'll put on my snow pants. Me too. Me too. Ah, the college road trip. What better way to spread beer-fueled mayhem? If you're going for a ride, I'd like you to take Bart and Lisa. But Marge, we're college guys and we're up to no good. Mr. Simpson, Gary spilled his ear medicine.

Oh, those baby ducks were so cute. I can't believe they let us walk right up and feed them. I need to go to the bathroom. We stopped five minutes ago. Yeah, but someone knocked on the door and I couldn't go. This could be the first joke on record about someone being pee shy. Yeah, I mean that knock on the door. I've had to get over these feelings myself too as a nerd in bathroom. I can proudly say I have at this point.

I don't use the restroom out too much either. Bob worried about me on some movies that I could make it through a whole three hour Marvel movie perfectly fine. What do you think is waiting in there is my question. What dangers await you? Eye contact with a stranger. If someone's looking you in the eye, there's a reason. You need to redirect your stream.

After Homer fails at the road trip, he's got to do a prank. He will not study. That's the important thing. Homer is a character pitching jokes for the sitcom he's in. And he's like, well, the Dean will go nuts Like why do you need a prank? This is not revenge There's no reason to do it. He's like we have to do a prank guys We're doing it But Homer's prank that he plans is murderous like he plans to roll some up on the carpet and throw him off a bridge

But they get a reference to jaws in there real quick to again like referencing jaws now We're gonna need a bigger boat, all that. That was just jokes then. Like I feel like you can't get away with that the same these days either, right? I mean, I think that Jaws is, at this point, a lot of people have gone to the wall. But again, it's also like, one, time compresses,

and people are making jokes about something the second it happens now on social media and all that kind of thing. But also now Jaws is how old of a movie? I think 50. Almost, almost 50. Yeah. But it's very fun and it's, you know, unexpected. It's also laid out perfectly like in the movie, not just that it is a long scratch on the chalkboard and everybody turns to look, but also that I, I, I'm not a Jaws super expert, but I pulled up a scene when When they turn to face Quint,

he has a crude drawing of a shark on the chalkboard next to him, which Bart also has of a pig behind him too. I forgot that detail, nice. Then Bart solves the problem for Homer with a prank. He is the prank master at this point. I love too. He tells Homer about Springfield A&M,

and this is the first time Homer learns there's a rival college He instantly hates them those Bastards, it's the closest one within what 50 miles Yes And you know what I love sir oink-salai more than spider pig slash Harry plopper. He's funnier He's a fatter realer cute little outfit on him I was doing a side-by-side comparison before we got on because obviously spider-pig Definitely comes to mind and yes, sir. Oh, it's a lot

I think is a spider-pig is just attached to that Harry Potter reference it won't on stick Yeah, you got to cancel it in that regard to I was flipping through Mike Reese's memoir again for the research on this I also came across Even he was like we worked so hard on that script and we barely thought about Spider Pig. And that's the only thing everybody quoted us from the damn movie was Spider Pig over and over again. They said they did a hundred and sixty six drafts on that movie. That sounds pretty high, even for a film. Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of thing with drafts that can mean a lot of things. You

know, you could change one line and say, Oh, it's a new draft. It rarely is rewriting the entire script from page one. And I'm sure with that movie, they were also making the show. And I know they got together a lot of the original seven just, you know, people schedules and they would do it. But yeah, I mean, that's a lot of drafts. And we vow to cover every draft. Yes. Great. Perfect. That's why when we finally get to the movie and a few years of chronological chat, I think,

that'll be our month of podcasts. It'll be an entire year of programming, let's be honest. That's, yeah, let's, yeah. So they kidnap the pig, and then I love how real the pig is drawn, that you keep pulling on a pig of pigs tail and he's a well-behaved pig Who doesn't instantly react but Homer will not stop doing it. It's just the little bit of throwing slot getting increasingly like uncontrolled like Like he doesn't like it, but he over will not stop until he is bitten and god the bite animation

Shot and I love that shot. And I love when they're holding him back, Bart jumps onto his leg and Homer kicks Bart off screen. That's how much he wants to get at this pig. And also we don't get to see, this is again them denying you a fun thing, in the Animal House style comedy, you would have seen like, you know,

the Belushi character drinking with an animal and like that would be the silly thing. Instead, we just get to see the depressing afterwards of it, which if you did do that, it would nearly kill an animal to drink alcohol like that. And he leaves him with the nerds. They're the ones who get caught with it as they hear a pig fainting. Hello. Look, you pull its tail straight and it curls right back up again.

Curly, straight, curly, straight, curly, straight, curly, straight. Mr. Simpson, I don't think he likes that. Of course he does. He's a cute little piggy. Curly, straight, curly, straight. Ow! Why you little! Mr. Simpson, stop case of malt liquor guys. He's really sick Hello, that sounds like a pig fainting

this is where just like in the School of Hard Knockers, a president is there with the dean and he actually agrees with the expulsion here. I'm sorry boys, I've never expelled anyone before, but that pig had some powerful friends. Or you'll pay. Don't think you won't pay! Guys, believe me, I didn't mean to get you expelled oh don't worry mr. Simpson we can take care of ourselves a wallet inspector oh here you go I believe that's all in order I can't believe that worked hey that's not the wallet

inspector so like the Bort joke this joke excites me I like turning it around Hey, that's not the wallet inspector. So like the Bort joke, this joke excites me. I like turning it around in my head because they could have just cut the act off with, I can't believe that works. But what makes it so special is Homer saying, that's not the wallet inspector, implying there's another man who keeps stealing from Homer and he thinks the wallet inspection industry is real.

Or there's another level because the show has been so crazy. Maybe there is a real wall. That's maybe the world is so like there's nap time at the nuclear power plant. Maybe in this world there is a wall inspector. And again, Dan Kesslin, I was reading because he so sincerely believes it as Homer that you kind of start to wonder. And then you like, oh no, of course, that's not it. Of course, he's just as had it stolen. But it's one of those great Simpsons jokes that you can really, you know, think about.

Well, you know, the show has never explored this. So I'm writing my next spec script, Homer, the Wallet Inspector, season 37. Look out. OK, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to election day and face it between debates, polling releases, even court appearances. It can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Milky. I'm the host of Start Here, the daily podcast from ABC News. And every morning, my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand with just enough context

so you can listen, get it, and go on with your day. So kickstart your morning. Start smart with Start Here and ABC News because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. They were gambling there with this Richard Nixon reference. Being informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. They were gambling there with this Richard Nixon reference. He died 185 days after this, but it was great that he is a friend of Sir Roink's lot because he was given an honorary diploma by him earlier in his career.

Yeah, Living Nixon appears twice in early season five. The Halloween episode has, but I'm not dead yet. That's an even bigger risk to have an old man say, but I'm not dead yet in your long production TV show. I mean, it's dangerous enough on podcasts. Like we have recorded a podcast guest appearance that will appear in November and after the election. And I was just entirely the whole time of like saying nothing about

anything with this election. It will only sound wrong, but here they risked it on Nixon and they made it. They made it in time. It's implied through the start of the next scene that what Holbert did is take pity on them and invite them to live at home with them, which Marge, who normally is a caring, accepting character hates them. It's so mad, which is so funny. It does seem, you know, they have a big house. It's his fault, clearly. It's not that big of an imposition.

They're just going to be there for a little bit. But she's immediately mad. They appear in the doorway. They all have nosebleeds. But for the love of God, like Marge just walks right out. This is where, could this be the first joke about nerds on the internet in television, this clip here? What's wrong with this phone? It's making crazy noises.

Those crazy noises are computer signals. Yeah, some guys at MIT are sending us reasons why Captain Picard is better than Captain Kirk. They're out of their minds. They knew that the internet was for arguing about stupid things from pop culture and that also their self-satisfied laughter of like, they're out of their minds perfectly captures nerd laughter. And these are the only people on the internet in 1993, college students arguing about Star

Trek. Normal people aren't there yet. Though by 93, I guess two people would be arguing about Joel versus Mike on the MSD3 case. Yeah, I think this month in history, that's when Mike Nelson takes over. October 93. But also Picard all the way over Kirk. Come on. But it's also, you know, this type of nerd argument is not an undercurrent of sexism or racism It's just about who's cooler. It's it's all yeah It is before nerd culture would you know be politics and?

Identity it's just about and probably because it's just about do you like this white man or that white man? And it's just about who's cooler. That's what they're arguing about. That's true. Oh man, I wouldn't have been on those Star Trek forums back then or now, but when Avery Brooks gets cast as the captain of Deep Space Nine, ooh boy, I wonder how well they took it on those forums.

These nerds would seem a lot less likable if they were ranting about that. Or God forbid Janeway. What's going on there? Oh yeah. And I love that line. Those crazy noises. I've said those things before.

I probably said that exact thing to my mom about using the internet. Then we cut to the itchy and scratchy short, which is, you know, these were the things you could just, before the internet could just tell you every cartoon and every band episode of anything. Like you could say, Oh, this is that one Bugs Bunny cartoon. They won't show anymore or whatever. But this is where scratchy is finally going to get itchy. Though my version of that as a kid was when the tricks rabbit finally got to eat the cereal in the tricks commercial. And though it's not like they never showed it, but it was a very brief window they showed it.

Though now you can just look it up on YouTube. But I hope that by today, Bart and Lisa, who have aged naturally, have found a Torrance site that hosts this banned cartoon. The reveal of, I mean, more of my favorite drawings of The Simpsons, when they lose the TV signal and they scream and they get to go the TV the TV like their heads are huge their mouths are huge like they are breaking anatomy all over the place it's amazing the shot up at them screaming as Krusty says not in a million years they scream again and it's looking directly

up at them just a lot of fun angles their eyes have never been bigger their tongues have never waggled more. And also the way Krusty just gets his face right in the camera, like wow! Like Krusty, you talk about high energy, Bob. Krusty went from being like, eh, in season four, like now he's just like, ah, he's just screaming again. He's much more manly. Again, rock tumbler, great choice for a nerd of this era.

It is the most boring hobby because you put rocks in it, you come back in months and maybe they're a little shinier. That's a Rock Tumbler. That's more important than the TV. So after this, we cut back to Bart wanting to dig some nerd holes to kill these nerds. Lisa is sick of them too. Homer tries to defend them in a perfect,

horrible drawing of Homer. I love that shot of him. Piece of toast in hand, knife in the other. His mouth has like four shapes in it. It's all wrong, but I love it. It seems like a mistake they got through that they couldn't fix, but I can always see it coming, like I said earlier.

And even Marge just goes like, no, I want those geeks out of my house. No niceness. So this is when Homer comes up with a scheme, and it's a zany one. I also just love, why does it have to be zany? Like, they come up with a plan that involves running over the Dean,

but it's saving the Dean's life, which these are plots in movies that Conan is pointing out that if one thing goes wrong in it, you almost kill the man with your save-a-lice. What's great about this though is they don't tell you about the plan ahead of time. You have to piece it together by what you see Homer doing

and what you see the Dean doing and then the nerds doing and it's all like, oh God, is this what the plan is? Mm-hmm. It builds beautifully, yes. And then Homer just counted on them to save the day, which it is the nerds' fault. I mean, it's Homer who does it and over should go to jail. Those, you know, they're two in their head.

They're nerds. They're thinking about wind resistance and now looking about what's right in front of them. They are detail obsessed nerds very perfectly. And just they're oh dear. And Matt Grating did not like this joke. It was to me and even coded on the commentary is like, you know what? Now with some distance, this is too mean a joke. He feels a little bad they did it to this guy.

It seems like the original idea was for the running over to be more prolonged. He would have dragged the Dean a certain distance too, but the bluntness of just hitting him and then you seeing nothing else, I think works perfectly. And the cut to the hospital. On Conan's show, they had very mean jokes. I've seen so many hilarious ones shared recently of like the one where like Andy just gets shot. I think it's Ian Roberts is the guy playing it who's just like, no, it's Brian Stack. And he's like, oh yeah, I'm a skeet shooter.

And Conan throws it and he just shoots Andy and Andy's dead. And I'm like, wow, that's just like, but maybe those brutal jokes, you know, when it's over and just black out instantly instead of a sitcom, the cruelty, you have less time to think about it. But Homer also, he does apologize, though he says he's sorry for the running you over prank. This scene is so good. And then I love the Dean who has nothing to apologize for, has been nothing but considerate, apologizes to for maybe being too tough or whatever, and then Homer immediately agrees with him. Yes, you have.

Yes, yes, you have, which is so funny that it's like, I think anyone has been in a situation where they felt like they had to apologize just to move forward when someone too vigorously agrees with you. All right, you're the one more at fault. Yeah. It's like, you know what? We did both make mistakes. You're right. Yeah. And the way Homer whispers it, like, he's such an asshole when he should be in jail and the way he acts out like, well, this will be your new hip. And it instantly breaks. And it's

like, you're gonna have to go easy on it. Like his life is over. This happy go lucky guy has now been ruined. And if you don't have a hip, I mean. Yeah, oh god. Homer's ruined his life. But he has to accept that. And then it's also great.

This is another wonderful bit they do in the Merkin era, which is they tease you that the episode is over before it is over. David Merkin loves what he calls the screw you joke and the screw you ending and this has two rejected endings. I forgot how subversive that element of this episode is. Yes, that first Homer thinks the episode would end once he has saved the lives of the nerds. Well I'm touched by your honesty. And who knows, perhaps I've been a bit of an ogre myself.

Yes, you have. How's this? I'll readmit your friends and we'll forget this whole silly incident ever occurred. Oh, Dean, this is what your new hip is going to look like. You're going to have to go easy on it. Oh, it's good to be back after all these weeks. Better check our answering machine, huh?

Number of messages received... zero. We really want to thank you, Mr. Simpson. No problem, guys. The important thing is that we wrapped up all the loose ends. So, in conclusion, good luck on tomorrow's big final exam. Exam! Oh, this is just like one of those bad dreams! Ah! What are you gonna do, Mr. Simpson?

Actually, I've been working on a plan. During the exam, I'll hide under some coats and hope that somehow everything will work out. Or with our help, you can cram like you've never crammed before. Whatever, either way is good. Oh yeah, I forgot there are three fake endings. There's all the loose ends get wrapped up. We see that he fails the test and we see that Marge won't let him cheat in the end.

So wow. So they tease with the swelling music. Yep, the episode's over, and then no, Homer has to take a test, that's the plot of it, just slams you back into it. Also, then Homer came to the class in his underwear for no reason, he just, because he's insane, like I would guess.

Yeah. And also the drawing of him screaming, love that drawing too. And I lived my life with hiding under some coats and hoping somehow everything will work out. I learned a bad lesson from this as a child. You're right, Bob, another screw you is they waste 30 seconds on a studying montage

and ended with F. Just like bam. Right. It's a different version of the like, Bart Simpson, Bart Simpson, Bart Simpson, Bart Simpson, stop raising your hand. You haven't gotten a single question, right? Yeah, it's like it's doing the montage. That's very familiar the trophy thing and then at the end of the montage

You know showing you that it didn't work It really feels like the smartass follow-up to Bart gets an F He fails the test and then there's very big emotional scene about how stupid he feels and then through that scene He actually gets some things right and then he passes this one is just like no you fail. That's it There's nothing touching to follow here. You just messed up. I Also love the animation of Homer Confidently placing his test down walking back and clicking his heels like perfect animation The Homer is then sobbing because I'm gonna lose my job just because I'm dangerously unqualified.

Perfect line. Oh man, I can't believe you failed. Oh, I'm gonna lose my job just because I'm dangerously unqualified. Mr. Simpson, there is a way. We could, well, use a computer to change your grade. Computers can do that? Oh yes, the only problem is the moral dilemma it raises, which requires- MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! MWAH! M Terry, Conan does say that was the end. Homer cheats and succeeds. The end. And I will say, I think that should be the end because they make a lot of jokes about

how we didn't learn anything, but it actually does have a pretty standard sitcom story is Homer hates nerds. He thinks the college is going to be like jocks and nerds. He goes to college, he meets nerds, he befriends them, he likes them, he gets them into trouble, but then ultimately he saves them and in return they save him and basically cheat for him. So I do feel like that is the ending, but then it seems like, oh no, we have to also do another ending where that for some reason it's not okay that the nerds just cheat for him so then he also has to study and go back to school. It's a fun little joke where Marge is much more savvy than Homer thinks.

Immediately figures it out. Just magic box because that could be the ending there like let's just say add a little help from a magic box the end like I think you're right that the spirit of this story would also fit more with and Homer cheated at the end like we wasted your time with all this studying too and it does feel like either Brooks or Grayling or just this general feeling of now come on it's too early in Merkin's time that they can get away with an empty ending like that or just cut to black you know it'll be a year from now they do Homie the Clown which ends with here's $38 is what he owed and here's 40 and to your change. Thank you the end, but they're not there yet Merkin loves making fun of endings and there's even more baked in here where Homer's like well

I guess we all learned this and someone says no we didn't He's trying to find a way out of this with some closure which I will say when I watch this episode I also rewatched, you know the surrounding episodes and there are a lot when you watch them all together there's a lot of when it gets to the ending like commenting on subverting almost to the point of exhausting and I think in syndication when you would see all of the Simpsons mixed up and not necessarily in order it's fun that some of them are like that. I feel like some of the episodes don't need to have a comment on the ending and some of them can just have an ending, but it's also part of the fun. I think David Merkin just hated sitcoms so much.

As we sat on the Get a Life, what a cartoon. It was illuminating for me to learn not just that he was a Python guy, which each Python sketch usually it fails for an ending or has a middle finger ending or kills everybody at the end of a movie or Holy Grail has no ending but also he is a huge fan of the young ones which he tried to make the young ones American adaptation which also is aggressively anti-audience in giving fulfilling endings too. In this case this does feel a little like he was told, this is a bad lesson for kids to learn.

It's why it is framed as Bart thinks it's cool and you can't teach Bart that lesson, meaning all the Barts at home watching this can't learn that cheating pays off, even though I think that is a good, horrible lesson for children to learn. I also think that the joke that has aged extremely well is we could do it with computers, but it does raise ethical questions and then Homer just kissing the computer.

I mean, as we get into like AI and all sorts of other things, I feel like as technology or anything has come along, there have been all sorts of things that someone will say, oh, this is actually an interesting ethical and no one cares. And people are embracing technology or the future. And we are just moving on. And I think that, uh, Oh, you know, because the ethical dilemma of changing grades, I don't know how interesting of an ethical dilemma that really is. But the question of can you use technology to, you know, abuse the rules

has definitely become all the more relevant. All the naysayers are drowned out by the sound of executives kissing. Right, exactly. I bet David Zaslov is kissing computers every day. Let's hear the morally ambiguous ending. An A plus, how did you do it? Oh, let's just say I had help from a little magic butt. You changed your grade with a computer?

No! Way to go, Dad! Look, the important thing is that we all learned a lesson. These guys learned the richness and variety of the world outside college. No, we didn't. Oh, then I learned the real value of college is to study and work hard. No, you didn't. You only passed your course by cheating, which you always taught us was wrong. True.

And I learned that in order for you to set a good example for your son, you're going to take that course over again without cheating. Oh, Marge, you're worse than that crusty old dean. We had a freeze frame jump in the air, but only from Homer. Nobody else is doing it. And they even are just like, party down. I also love Omar and you're worse than that crusty old Dean. Like he's learned nothing. Yes. He has not learned that lesson. He still thinks the Dean is crusty despite. And also what a great sketch type line of like, well, I guess it's back to college for me. Also it felt relatively new then to have the joke

of the fake montage of moments that didn't happen in the episode. Like you get three real screen grabs and then the rest is things that did not happen. And you imagine happened off screen during Homer's college adventure, including moments from Animal House like him in a toga, him in a food fight, and him getting spanked, which is what happens to Kevin Bacon in that movie, right?

Yeah. Mm-hmm. What is the tank from? The scene with the tank? I think that's Revenge of the Nerds, right? Or two? It may be from Revenge of the Nerds. It's maybe also kind of a reference to the Animal House parade scene in Volusushi, kind of taking over the floats. But maybe there's a tank that's more of a reference. And then Louie Louie, of course, is featured in Animal House. The song that they have over the montage. And I like the Dean Peterson. Him and Homer come together from watching bras at Richard Nixon and celebrating.

Yes. Bobby Peterson is now secretary of Partying Down. And the final shot is Homer exposing himself to everybody. So I guess there was one nudity joke in this then. I think that old school increased college streaking for our generation for years. Now, improv comedy shows, you're not going to see male nudity as much as you used to after the old school years. And probably everyone having cameras with them at all times.

Maybe that. You can't go to a birthday boy show anymore and see Mike Mitchell and Mike Hanford nude anymore. Those days are over. I've seen that sketch live twice, I think. Maybe three times. I remember that night I saw it. Only Hanford did the nudity in that one that night. But Hanford also did not show us his butt.

Tim Kallpak has had a funny line saying like, oh, the stuff I'm seeing over here audience. Yeah, you can believe yes. I've seen that many times When Mitch crosses his legs It's always a real moment for the audience I was gonna say the balls on those guys But literally the bravery of those guys to film that sketch for their first episode of Birthday Boys. But yeah, Comedy Nudity, we're in a lull period for it these days in American comedy.

Will it ever come back in a form that doesn't remind people of like, I don't know, bad people who used Comedy Nudity for bad reasons? Like I don't know. I hope someday. The innocence of Comedy Nudity, I want it back. And you know what? They paid for the real Louie Louie and Disney has to pay for it for the streaming rights every year so it's costing them millions of dollars by this point I would bet I have asked this of other writers too but are

you gels of the Simpsons budget for song licensing that they could do because they can license anything yes I mean music is like such a thing that you know helps things that people don't even necessarily realize. You know I think a big part of like you know all those like Apple TV shows people are like these just like feel expensive. It's like yeah they spend so much money on music and it's great. I worked on a show Killing It which we were able to do a little bit of song licensing, which was fun to do.

But yeah, it's always a whole nightmare. Like you can think of like, oh, it'd be so great to have this song, you know, come in at this point. And it's not always so easy. Actually, I remember that birthday boy show I went to with you, Bob. It seemed like they had several sketches that were like, well, we can't film this one because a Beatles song or a Disney song is the joke in this scene. Right, right. It's all the things they couldn't put on their sketch show. This episode, I mean, it's like a perfect episode of Simpsons, not just amazing animation the whole time that I disagree with Matt Groening complaining about this one. Like it's so

perfectly animated, but also like it is Cotin's best script on the show. Oh, Mars versus Monterey is so good too, but I think this is better. I think because David Merkin is a better platform for the insanity Conan put into the show, and I think this is a more central. It's the comedic conceit is thorough through the whole three acts as opposed to Marge vs. the monorail is not as complete a three act structure thing if I'm grading it on structure points. Both are perfect episodes of Simpsons, but I'm going to say I currently feel that Conan is best script on Simpsons is this episode.

Yeah, I may prefer this too. And it's too bad that Conan went on to become a celebrity with his own talk show because he could have went on to write, I don't know, two more years of Simpsons. We have those to talk about. Until he burned out. Yeah. I feel like the show is full of more energy. And I feel like I am full of more energy,

because this is my favorite era of the show, the Merkin stuff. So I'm just so excited to get into it. I love a sensibility. I'm glad it was like a brief pit stop in the long run of the show. But I just love what these years did for the Simpsons and changed their sense of humor and influenced what would come. So super excited to talk about more of seasons five and six. Evan, any final thoughts?

Any final thoughts? Yeah, no, I think that it's a fun episode. I think that, you know, you guys, I felt a little bit of pressure when you offered me this one because I know it's such a beloved episode. And for me personally, I think that it wasn't because of the reasons that I mentioned. I had like some like mixed feelings about it because it was, you know, about these college comedies and all of that. But rewatching it, I mean, joke for joke, it's really great. And there's so much great performance stuff and so much good, you know, Homer stuff. And I think that I love the world of Springfield and this one's a little light on the world of Springfield, but for creating new characters and that you just like the Dean and these nerds who sometimes in lesser Simpsons episodes when it's an episode where you meet a bunch of new characters,

if they're not great, it maybe doesn't feel like a great episode. This one does such a great job of introducing you to new characters a new world and it is just so many great Homer Moments, so it was a blast to rewatch and revisit with you guys I know it's a good one when it can still make me laugh as I am clinically taking notes on something I've watched a hundred times already so it succeeds at that level too But thank you again to Evan Susser for being on the show for the very first time. Evan, let us know where we can find you online and what you're working on these days. Okay. I guess you can find me online on Twitter, but I haven't posted on there. You can find

me online on various appearance on the Doughboys podcast. I'll be on the end of the year for sure. And I also, as you guys mentioned, I recently wrote some shorts for the Minions, which you can, as of now, check out on the home video and digital release of this Pickle Me 4. One called Game Over and Over, where one of the Minions gets a video game controller that can control another minion. And also Benny's Birthday, which is kind of a riff on Groundhog's Day with the Minions. And hopefully those will be out on, you know, Minion short collections, which are on Netflix and all that kind of stuff. And I wrote those with Van Rover Show, my freaking collaborator. Those are the things. Awesome. Now that you've ridden a Universal ride, can you go to Universal

for free anytime you want? It's a great question. When I went to Orlando to go to the ride, they were very generous and hooked up free passes for my family and all of that kind of stuff. I don't know, since I don't have a ride out here in Los Angeles, I don't know if I can call in that favor for that, but I think I'm covered in Florida. They might let you sit on the existing Minions ride in Los Angeles and punch it up a little as you're writing it. Yes right exactly you know yell out jokes to the people. But thank you so much Evan this was so much fun we'd love to have you back. Oh I'd

love to do it thanks guys. Thanks so much to Evan Susser for being on the show but as for us if you want to support us get a ton of bonus podcasts and get ad-free podcasts go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and sign up at the $5 level when you do get all the podcasts you like one week ahead of time and ad free and you'll also get access to our vast back catalog of full-length bonus episodes covering things like Futurama, King of the Hill, Batman the Animated Series, Mission Hill and The Critic and that five bucks a month also gets you regular new monthly episodes of both Talking Futurama

and Talk King of the Hill. Like I said, that is nearly 200 episodes that you'll get access to the second you sign up for five bucks a month at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, and there is a $10 level as well. When you sign up for that, you can access all of the $5 stuff naturally, but then you can also access one mega long podcast

once a month only for patrons of that level. Henry, what's going on there? Bob is talking about our What a Cartoon Movie podcast, which we do once a month, an extra long, basically three podcast length release of us covering an animated feature film as in-depth as we do Homer Goes to College College we just covered in September B movie after we had a bunch of fun talking about great Disney Renaissance films we then started off our fall with covering the less loved Jerry Seinfeld animated film from the Aughts B movie and this month you'll get to hear us talk about the appropriately time for Halloween Hotel, Transylvania, and you can only hear the full thing if you go to the $10 level and you get

our entire back catalog with that as well of six years basically of what a cartoon movie. I'd say over 200 hours of exclusive chats about Disney classics, Disney Renaissance, every Toy Story movie, Cool World world even our studio Ghibli films Even our longest podcast ever about who framed Roger Rabbit that six and a half hours long You can hear that ad free along with all the other great ad free podcast exclusively at patreon.com Slash Talking Simpsons as for me. I've been one of your hosts Bob Mackey You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo and my other podcast is RetroNauts. That's a classic gaming podcast all about old video games.

You can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash RetroNauts and sign up there for two full length bonus episodes every month. And Henry, what about you? You can follow me on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G, also on Blue Sky, and I'm talking Henry on Instagram. And if you're on all of those social media platforms, you got to know about the official account of this podcast at Talk Simpsons Pod. At Talk Simpsons Pod keeps you in the loop whenever there are new podcasts, whenever we're doing a live show, whenever we have stuff going on on Patreon, you'll learn about

it first on at Talk Simpsons Pod. And if you need an easy list of all of our previously released free podcasts, head over to TalkingSimpsons.com. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for our 2024 Portland Live Show with Bill Oakley, and we will see you then. Now if anyone would like to stay, I'm going to hold the comprehensive review session after every class.

Do we have to? No. Then kiss my curvy butt good-bye.