Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - The Regina Monologues

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Pip pip and cheerio listeners, we're here to discuss the Simpsons' visit to London in this star-studded episode with more famous people than great jokes. Yes, they prioritize getting famous Brits in it from war criminal Tony Blair to hatemonger JK Rowling (plus a couple of UK citizens who aren't terrible people). But before that, we still get a couple of funny moments in the final episode written by John Swartzwelder. So grab your fish & chips for a podcast that goes deep into this era of US-UK relations! Support this podcast, experience it ad-free, and get over 200 bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

This podcast is brought to you by Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, and tons more. or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast fit for a duke, or maybe even an earl. I'm one of your hosts, BartForum subscriber Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who is here with me today as always? Henry aka Henrietta our hippo and this week's

podcast is all about the Regina monologues we're big shot tourists from everyone's favorite country the USA we saved your ass in Vietnam and shared our prostitutes with Hugh Grant so give me some free maps and none of that dry British wit nah I wouldn't dream of it sir thank you this episode originally our prostitutes with Hugh Grant, so give me some free maps and none of that dry British wit. I wouldn't dream of it, sir. Thank you. This episode originally aired on November 23, 2003, and as always, Henry will tell us

what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh my god! Oh boy Bobby, depressingly, the cat in the hat is at the top of the box office. The next Joe Millionaire ends the entire series with a second season finale, and previous Simpsons guest Michael Jackson is arrested on charges of child molestation. We are about 16 years before that episode gets banned. Stargraving Dad, right? The clock starts ticking now. Yes, yeah, they were watching for the verdict, I guess. I think as many people

treated it, oh well, he was found not guilty, so I guess everything's fine. And there's that Michael Jackson musical. I think they're working on a nice Michael Jackson biopic that's about to be coming out in the next year or so. Like, we're still in the pretend nothing happened and everything's fine Michael Jackson era which at least now they can go, ah look he's dead forget about it who knows the music's great who cares yeah there was a brief period in which I didn't hear the music but now it's all back yeah it's everywhere you hear it everywhere and hey we all love the song Thriller like yeah it's a great, but how can you listen to it

and not think about the man who is recording it? I'm tapping my toe and forgetting things at the same time. The Cat in the Hat, the adaptation of the Dr. Seuss, the classic book, this was a movie, if I'm not mistaken, Mike Myers was forced to be in this because he walked away from the Sprockets project. They were making that honestly far too late, but he didn't like how it was going and he cost the studio a lot of money. So

this was his community service playing the cat in the hat. And I think it is the first movie directed by Bo Welch, who was Tim Burton's designer, his production designer. And by the way, he married Catherine O'Hara. They met on the set of Beetlejuice and he helped out with the new movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Wow! Well, that's, hey, that's a sweet love connection. And also that explains why Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had some good physical sets that characters were running around in. That actually explains why that movie has at least a good amount of charm.

Though then again, the can of the ad has no charm. It is a horrible movie that's been mocked on many a podcast and I'm sure our We Hate Movies pals covered it forever ago. Oh, they did. And this is really where Mike Myers fell off and he's been trying to scramble back up to where he used to be for the past now 21 years. He was so on top, the Austin Powers movies, Wayne's World,

I feel like 1992 to 2003 that is Mike Myers reign in comedy and he's had several projects since then the love guru I think the Netflix series called the Pentavorites Yeah, whatever it is the conspiracy theory comedic show where he plays a lot of characters. Nobody's seen it I just miss liking Mike Myers the Pentavar was supposed to be his big return and also like a near crossover event, like his Avengers Endgame of bringing together plot threads. Like even in a goofy joke sense, Shrek appears in it.

A guy in a costume of Shrek appears, like the theme park costume. They didn't make a digital Shrek appear in it, but I don't think Cat in the hat appears in it Which he is covered in makeup in it He's in the same kind of horrible makeup that Jim Carrey had to be in though Jim Carrey's looked way better as the Grinch As opposed to the cat in the hat and also the cat in that has to become a Mike Myers character who does you know? his

several voices he can do and do jokes about like horrible things that the Dr. Seuss estate should never have allowed. Yeah, for whatever reason the Cat in the Hat's natural speaking voice in this is just Linda Richmond, the coffee talk host from the coffee talk series of SNL sketches. So I find that charming but that makeup is just so hideous. So when you see that the Cat in the hat is in theaters, you can figure out at least a little better why Elf makes the comeback is number one. Like that actually is if I am going to take my kid to see a movie,

a entertaining movie for the holidays for the whole family, I'd rather go to Elf than the cat in the hat as well. I feel like everything has been rebooted. I think I've shared this idea before on a podcast. It's a very obvious idea, so I'm not giving myself too much credit, but we need to reboot Austin Powers. Let's do the same premise as the original movies. He is frozen in 2002, thought out in 2025,

and he has to adapt to the new standards. The 90s political correctness did not go too far. He's in a world where it's been pushed much further. Can Austin Powers deal with woke him 1997 Austin Powers having the same reaction with his 97 values in 2025 would be funny. It is too obvious to not do but I know our previous guest Griffin Newman He has been paying more attention to the Austin Powers 4 potential for a long time and it's just been like, it is too obvious

not to do, but it also all hinges on Mike Myers doing it, and he just hasn't got a script he wants to do yet to shave his head one more time to be Dr. Evil. If Wayne and Garth can come back for an Uber Eats commercial, we can surely get another Austin Powers film before we die. There was a Super Bowl commercial with Dr. Evil in it. I do remember that in the last few years. Yes, yes, a foggy memory for me. And also we have the Joe Millionaire 2 finale.

I was way too mad at this, but the actual Joe Millionaire guy is in this episode. That brought back a lot of memories, mostly of bottom of the screen bugs popping up during Fox programming. Yes that's why I even included this one of like oh it's funny they have the first Joe millionaire who have made any kind of cultural impact and they tried to do it a second time and as Fox's head of entertainment Sandy Grusho said about it our instincts told

us from the very beginning that Joe millionaire was a one-time stunt. And I think we got greedy. We tried to sneak it by America a second time and we got called on. And yes, lightning did not strike twice on Joe millionaire, but that is the next Joe millionaire. We'll talk about the first Joe millionaire a little later on this podcast. And this episode is another one that is guest list repeat guest list, because we have, once again,

a lot of travel to account for, a lot of time that we can't record towards the end of the year. So we are counting for that by recording episodes without guests, just to speed them along through the production pipeline. And that's fine for this episode because it's not a great one, and it doesn't reveal any new things about the UK. It's basically, here's everything America or Americans know about the UK, the most obvious landmarks, the most obvious celebrities of the early aughts.

And only specifically London even. They don't even travel outside of it for any reason. It is all London Pacifics. And yeah, I've never traveled across the Atlantic. And I've been talking about it lately with my husband like, oh know we should do it but honestly we've always treated when we've talked about it Paris is the number one for us and we're like well I guess we're going to Paris we should probably like start in London and then take the channel to Paris but London is always like secondary even though I like British things I wouldn't mind seeing like some London stuff I love old buildings it seems like a cheat because you don't have to learn a new language to get

around if you're from America or possibly Canada but it's a place I really want to go back to only took a work trip there was there for like I don't know 60 hours got one of the worst flus of my life at an event and have no real memories of it I drank at a pub that was fun but I didn't really get to see a whole lot but yeah it does feel like a cheat. So I feel like London would be a step as part of a larger European tour. I feel like your illness, Bob, was because you didn't have any of the limes that they love to have so much.

That's how they don't get sick. That's true. I think it was scurvy. It wasn't influenza. You've at least been there. I, meanwhile, just worked for the British for a number of years and came to dislike all of them though they not all of them. All of them. No, no, I like some British people.

I like some British coworkers and I also learned how to pronounce the city of Bath correctly. It's not bath. It's bath. Gloucester? Is that in the UK? Is that in Britain? So look, also I did make some notes of like this person is Welsh or Scottish or whatever. And I should have watched a very London specific movie maybe ahead of time to recalibrate,

but instead last night I watched Trainspotting. I just put it on while doing my workout because there's a specific reference to this, but there is a London section of Trainspotting. So I kind of got in the headspace. Yeah, you're not listening to a show with two London experts, but the episode we're covering is not, again, anything in depth about the city or the culture. It is the obvious stuff.

There's one thing we should talk about in the preamble, though. So this is John Swartzwalder's final episode of The Simpsons, the final episode where he is a credited writer. He is out as of production season 14. We're still in production season 14 by the way, though he did come back to work on the movie. In case you're wondering, his first episode was season one's Bart the General. So from Bart the General to the Regina monologues, he was a staff writer up to a point until he left because he couldn't smoke anymore. I think around seasons five or six or something like

that. And then from that point onward, worked out of his home, out of one of the same booths he would smoke in at a local diner. We've told the many, many John Swartzwalder stories. We've asked so many writers about John Swartzwalder stories during our interviews. So there's not a whole lot of new things to cover.

This is just another milestone of The Simpsons timeline. It's an end of the era type moment. and to think that if we're counting his end as production 14 and we're not even officially saying he did 15 seasons of The Simpsons, if we're just going with 14, then they're in broadcast season 36 now. There are over 20 seasons of Simpsons with no John Swartzwelder involvement in it. And that is a crazy thought that there are more episodes of Simpsons, more seasons of Simpsons with no John Swartzwelder involvement than there were of him working on the show. Though yeah, it definitely seems like I get the feel from season five onward.

Swartzwelder is kind of set aside and you get your Swartzwelder scripts and you do with them as you will, but he is not like an office component so much in the writer's room. Yeah, I think by that point, they understood who John Swartzwelder was, the kind of material he turned in

and how he didn't necessarily need to be part of the group. I do wonder on the timeline of things when he came into the movie, because someday we will do our Mega Movie podcast, but I think in the scheme of things, the movie has already, when they're doing production 14, the ball is already starting to roll. Like the snowball is going downhill because

when they signed everybody to the contracts in 02, I believe that's where the option was for the voice actors and you have to do a movie. If we do it, this is you agreeing to be the voice in the movie and so that means they have to start working on it. I also do think that when Silverman comes back to do the tree house of season 13, that that also is the start of him being planned as well. You're coming back to do the movie and this is practice for that.

So I wonder, that's what I'm curious. Did Swartzwalder stop immediately? And then they're like, also you're gonna be in the writing meetings for this, or was it more like oh four or five He's invited into the Scripting process. I wonder just what he did Yeah, I guess we're gonna find out but it seems like it might have been very early in the process and he's never given a reason

I mean people have barely spoken to him since he's left the show and they didn't really speak to him while he was making the Show, but he never really gave a reason why he left the show and they didn't really speak to him while he was making the show. But he never really gave a reason why he left. He has written 59 episodes of the show and honestly no one had ever been on a TV show for 14 years as a writer. It seemed crazy. Now we have writers who have been on the show for 25 years or longer. But I guess this is just the time he decided it's time for me to step away and work on

something else. And that's something else. Those were books and he's still writing them. Most of them are part of the Frank Burley series of detective novels, but he has written some standalone novels as well. And 15 so far, two dates since 2004. And the most recent one is called Dead Detective Mountain came out in 2023. I've only read one of these because they were a little pricey back when I had very little money. Now they're very available and very easy to get digitally. I'm going to try to read more of them, but they're exactly what you think. They're very fun and fast reads and it's such his work, obviously.

But when you read one of his books, you can see, okay, Oh, I understand what he added to the Simpsons when I see his work in isolation. You know, trying to look up what he has done since or why he left. It is helpful in research that there's only one Interview out there ever and that's the New Yorker one and yeah, he doesn't say why he left I would think he just was like yeah, am I gonna do this forever? he did in that interview though say why he went with self publishing and That he admitted to he joked like well also though every

problem is your fault too though he did also say I had submitted it to some publishers and they didn't reply to me soon enough so I decided I'll just self-publish then. Yeah I was looking at them on Amazon just now and if you want to buy the paperbacks are 17 bucks which feels like the normal price of a paperback but 15 years ago they still cost that much and I was making no money and that was a lot to ask for a book that would last me a few hours. Now, they're all on Kindle for nine bucks

and there's a bunch of them, so very, very easy to get. I think a number of them are also Kindle Unlimited borrowable as well. I've had Dead Detective Mountain sitting on my Kindle for a few months now when I signed up for Kindle Unlimited. When I say on my Kindle, I mean the Kind mountain sitting on my kindle for a few Months now when I signed up for kindle unlimited when I say on my kindle I mean the kindle app on my iPad which is where I read stuff No dead detective mountain until you finish your dog of the south young man. I'm waiting for that book report But yeah, it was like six months after this aired is when the time machine did it came out

It's where he put all of his funny jokes I could also see that after this episode, especially, and it definitely feels like his last few scripts and this one really feel like this could have been anybody. This feels like it's 10 or 15% of it does feel Swartz Welderian, but the rest feels heavily rewritten to fit in things that he would never do. I will say act one feels like John Swartzwalder. The rest of it feels like plug and play.

Who can we get? What can we write around these characters? The idea of a museum where you pay to look at a thousand dollar bill feels like a very John Swartzwalder crazy idea that no one else would have thought of. Yes. I do think a little of the queen stuff in the third act does feel a little Swartzwalder too. If I had to guess, maybe that's where some of his stuff survived, but whatever he wrote in the second act,

I would think he would have been attracted to all of this Abe World War II stuff that would have maybe been more in the plot of act two. They didn't have so many famous people who said yes. And I guess that's it for Swartzwalder. I mean, we're covering older episodes at the same time, so we're not done talking about him, but this is it for him for the show until we get into the movie discussion and this timeline going forward. And his 59 episodes still hasn't been beaten. Nobody has written more than him yet, as far as a single writer go. John Frank might someday if he keeps eating his vegetables and working out.

If so, Swartzwalder should return to just write a few more to stay on top. Though the script for this one too, it just sounds like Swartzwalder got handed an old idea that Gene and Reese had from a million years ago. Yeah, a really old idea from I'm guessing 15 years ago or earlier where Al Jean and Mike Reese They were breaking into television writing writing spec scripts It's what you do you write for free you submit the scripts and if they like your writing they'll hire you they might even use your script and their idea was a Golden Girls episode in which Mother Teresa is visiting Miami where the Golden Girls live and

she gets into a car accident with Dorothy and from that point onwards Dorothy is hated by the community, she's lambasted in the press and she's suffering the blowback from having an encounter like that with a famous person. And then in the end Mother Teresa apologizes saying it was her fault and Dorothy's public persona is saved. But that was the Golden Girls story that was rejected by everybody. But I guess, you know, never throw out an idea. If you're at the end of a season and very tired, just dig through your spec script closet and say, oh, this is pretty good.

Gene and Reece were really into Mother Teresa comedy back then because that the Karnak bit they saved and had reused in the show was, Saint Elsewhere answer, what's on Mother Teresa's answering machine? Like, Gene loves that bit. I know she existed before this, but she was really just an 80s celebrity, and she was such fun joke fodder because at least at the time we thought,

oh, the nicest, most benevolent person you could ever think of, then you can just apply that to any joke and make it funnier. Like, what if Mother Teresa was in line at the bank of, then you can just apply that to any joke and make it funnier. Like, what if Mother Teresa was in line at the bank? And then you write around that. Now, of course, thanks to the internet that they didn't have in the 80s,

you can find lots of differing opinions on Mother Teresa's record and her feeling. Yeah, one of the few good things Christopher Hitchens did was write an expose on Mother Teresa and her beliefs on how suffering is good and all that. You can read about it elsewhere. It's not worth Shambling Show the year before. Oh, and I guess last note I had on this or on the production was Mark Kirkland directs this so you do have the most prolific director working with the most prolific Simpsons writer as well. And Kirkland, he does a good job like he always does. And much like the Africa episode they did, it does have a tourist level of

familiarity with the area in this. They didn't get an actual like British person to direct it, but Mark Kirkland said he'd been there several times and took his photos and I think at least it has like, oh, this looks like a photograph of the area or this looks like a person walked to this Street and drew it perhaps and I think he has just been lapped for having the most amount of directed episodes I'm looking at the Wikipedia now He has 84 and he left the show in 2020 and now Stephen Dean Moore has 85 he's still with the show So after a cute opening couch gag of Play-Doh being shot out, which I like the

family shapes in the shaping spot. That's fun. It's a nice fun factory gag and you know, it's a reduced opening. There's just too many stars. There's too many stars. There are two long, not long, but longish deleted scenes on this one. Together the two deleted scene audios I have, yeah, they add up to a minute,

so they cut a minute of stuff. The deleted scenes that are on the DVD are not cut because they have animation errors in them. They all look fine. Yeah, I guess they must have been pretty hidden because I didn't stumble into them upon my watch. One should have stayed hidden, I think. I'll get to it.

But we start with something I'm very glad. When you think of this episode wistfully as a final Schwarzwald or episode, then I love that he got to do a major burns plot at the start of his final episode. Yeah, this is great burns material. Again, I always like to see him in this era because I feel like he is downplayed a lot,

but this is all classic burns material. What happens, always like to see him in this era because I feel like he is downplayed a lot, but this is all classic Burns material. What happens? We ask ourselves as viewers, what would happen if Mr. Burns had to use an ATM? Look, Smithy's Crackleberries. Spot me a federal, will you? Sir, I've spotted you over $100,000 this year. Perhaps you could carry your own money. Money is for the poor. Why don't you use your ATM card? Ah, yes. The automated tele-machinio-le-troll-a-maton.

Uh... Oof. Oh, Smithers, guide me in. My pleasure, sir. Smithers, what's my password? It's your age, sir. Excellent. And then he very slowly types out his age, which is four digits.

Yeah, it's all the best Byrne stuff. It's him being old and out of touch, using terms for things that have never been used before, and also sexual tension between Smithers and Byrnes. Guiding me in is one of the filthiest ones they've ever gotten away with. It is that Smithers has been dreaming of guiding Burns in his whole life. And also money is

for the poor. Like Burns is so rich that he doesn't need money. Well we're living in the era of tapping your phone and everything but Burns is way ahead of the game here. Oh and also automated teller Trollamaton, that's perfect. Burns is of an impossible word there. All this stuff is good. He takes out the smallest amount of money he can think of, which is $1,000. The bill flies out, it smashes him in the chest, knocks him over. All this stuff is very funny.

It's a joke about Burns being weak. It's just all the best Burns characteristics are happening. Then we get a Forrest Gump parody. Boo, I feel like you could take this sound cue out and then it's not a Forrest Gump parody. It's entirely the sound cue doing it. I don't want to be reminded of Forrest Gump or Gump Roast. At least in Gump Roast, they had the shame

to put in a joke at the beginning that a Forrest Gump reference is too late. You can't do it in the year 2001 or when they wrote it, I believe. Also, I really like the framing of the shot of Burns and Smithers through the distorted ATM window. Like that's another creative shot. They don't frame stuff like that too often these days. And after the money flies around, it also did remind me of Boy Scouts in the Hood, that I was like, oh yeah, that it lands in the window, but it doesn't lead to Bart and Milhouse having an adventure. It's more of just a Bart adventure that happened. It's not a going crazy

Broadway style. And this also does feel like a thing Swartzwalder maybe grew up dreaming of, of like, because $1,000 bills were discontinued in 1969, so Boomer kids could dream of a $1,000 bill. We meanwhile, like, never knew of them, or I mean, I've never seen one, and maybe I would pay money to see one in person. No, if I ever worked at a store and someone tried to pay with one, I'd have to call the police or something. Yeah. I'm not equipped to handle this much money at once sir and then this hockey dad fighting game boy it is a specific because it turns into

murder it is a specific joke yeah I always liked how dark this joke went I didn't know it was based on a real event I'm also mildly annoyed that we're in the year 2003 and video games are still what they were in 1990 on the Simpsons this like very stiff animation 2d fighting game there mocking a 1993 Mortal Kombat game or even a 92 Mortal Kombat in my notes I have apparently Bart is a retro gamer back before it was cool. It's a PlayStation as well, right? Yeah, it's a PlayStation Yeah, well, whatever they don't have to know about that stuff

But yeah, this is about the story of Thomas Junta, who beat a referee to death at his son's practice game. Not even a real event. It was an exhibition match and he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He was released in 2010 and then died of cancer in 2020. So he's fighting other dads in hell right now. I mean, to read about that, to learn that it was an informal practice game that he beat someone to death over. And I can see, I read how he got involuntary manslaughter because he could claim self-defense, which that also feels like a very, you know, self-defense used in a fight you start kind of thing, or it's like, well, can you tell who started the fight?

That he at least killed him with his bare hands as opposed to like murdered someone with a gun because they're like, oh, they scared me, and it's self-defense. I guess that's different. It should take a long time to kill someone with your bare hands. I don't know, maybe this guy had a mean right hook

or something, but he's dead now. Yeah, it's also, I mean, now back then in over 20 years ago, one hockey dad killing a referee at a children's game. Everybody remembered that is like, Oh yeah, these hockey dads, they are crazy. Now social media will show you if it gets into your algorithm, Instagram will show you, or Reddit will show you dads fighting dads every day. You'll find a new video every single day

of one of those things. Yeah, every public fight is now filmed and there are frankly way too many of them. And I do wanna say that Simpsons beat South Park to the punch because their Bat Dad episode, The Losing Edge, released in April of 2005. So they were ahead of the curve on violent

sporting dads and that should count like they were three years ahead because Simpsons production is so far ahead while South Park could have thought of that joke a week before and then put it in. Bat's dad and Randy fighting each other like no this was America all of those things have defined for many when they imagine asshole dads getting in fights at kid things. They think of Randy being pulled away in his underwear going like, oh this was America. I just saw one of a dad fight. It was at a kids wrestling event, like this was shown to me by Reddit and it was like high school wrestling

and one dad considered that a point was called wrong by the referee against his son. And this is why it was shared. It was framed beautifully by the cinematographer of this, that the dad is off screen, the ref calls it, and then the dad flies into screen and shoves the referee off screen Completely like he flies here and then the referee stands up to be like that is assault you're under arrest And then the wife comes in in the middle of like no no it's fine. We're we're leaving We're leaving like I think he got arrested later not on the spot Yeah, you can't just walk away from a crime being like whoops. Sorry about the crime He'll be at home a lot of these happen at spaces with children. I think just because parents are more on edge and

These events may have alcohol present a lot of them happen at Chuck E cheese Oh Wow, when I scroll reddit as well and the fight videos pop up so many of them are in Chuck E cheese Maybe they're just shown more because it's more fun to see people brawling next to ticket machines and ball pits. You know, I like drinking at theme parks, but I do think Walt Disney was onto something to not sell alcohol at his theme parks because that is why you're seeing like the theme park fights too. I do feel like you take alcohol out of the equation. You're not getting those as much. I just also saw a compilation red

It seems to think I want to see these a lot and maybe red it's right But I try to ease you back into wrestling It knows I stopped going to the wrestling reddits and it wants me to resume all the wrestling t-shirt factories are going out of business now Reddit showed me a compilation of people being arrested at Universal Orlando. And I saw this one couple who they are right in front of the Kodos ride in Springfield drunk. And the video is a body cam footage from the security guard who says, no, the police have

been called. You are on private property. You have to leave now. And the wife is going, but no, no, no, we're leaving We're leaving and they take three steps and then stop and then the husband goes we're leaving and then eventually There's a time cut to the husband takes a swing at the security guard and he is under arrest Okay Well not a great ending for that couple don't get drunk if you're gonna get drunk be a nice drug

But I guess they were just imitating Homer at a theme park, I suppose. Really is what Homer would have done, and I think that should be legal within the Simpsons part of Universal Studios. That's why, you know, if you're in the Men in Black area, you can shoot one of the alien characters, because it's legal. That's in that movie. We're going to end the conversation here, but if you get drunk at Universal or a theme park, they should commend you because you likely spent $130. That's true. Unless you snuck in a flask somehow, you had to spend a lot of money, especially because they're not selling spirits, I think, either.

So you're having to get like beer drunk, which that's a lot of cups, I think. That's like a lot of low ABV lagers. They're serving you. They know that they're not going to try to push high ABV stuff on the customers because of the reasons you just discussed. So it takes a lot of effort to get drunk at a theme park. I've never tried because a beer costs $15. In my experience too, even when I've had like a drink at a theme park, I'm walking around and sweating so much that I do feel like I'm going through it faster than I would if I was sat at one bar.

Oh yeah, you really don't feel it as much. I think at Epcot, they want people to get drunk now. Like, they are selling stealthily, like bar crawling at Epcot. There were people in my age group or slightly younger wearing shirts there were made to be checked off of, called drinking around the world,

of like, did you drink in each land in Epcot? I feel like they're being cleverly monitored by many security guards. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Simpsons will be right back. November 30th, Bernie is after Homer. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. When Bernie Mac follows the Simpsons on Sundays.

My favorite day of the week. Starting November 30th on Fox. Welcome to the break, everybody. It's Henry Gilbert with a lust for life and a big Thank you to you the listener for joining us this week in our guest free episode of Talking Simpsons We hope you're enjoying this chat about a an episode all about London that is from two people who've never been there But hey most of the writers of the show haven't been there either and a big Thank you as well to our listeners at patreon.com Talking Simpsons because the supporters there not only get to hear this podcast a week at a time and without any ads you can be listening to next week's episode treehouse of our part four with no ads right now at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons but they also get a ton of bonuses as well.

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about 6 and a half hours long covering Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Please sign up today at Patreon.com slash Talking Simpson to see all the awesome stuff we got there at our ad-free $10 a month tier plus all the $5 things once more I must recommend you go to patreon.com Talking Simpsons Yes, why do we hear about both hockey dads and Bart fighting money in our next clip? Big man! Huh? What? Um, there's a ladybug in your hair. Get it out! Get it out!

Got it. You're a good friend, Bart. The best you'll ever have. $1,000. Do you know how much furniture we could rent with this? You'll rent nothing. This money is mine. I found it. Which means someone lost it. You'll have to put up flyers and see if anyone claims it. Marge, this is why people don't tell you things.

I do feel like that sums up John Swartzwelder's view on Marge too, right? Yeah, the fun-ruiner. Marge ruins the fun. This is why they shouldn't have even told her and not had anything happen at all. This gave me flashbacks to when I was a working stiff at a Blockbuster where I found a $20 bill on the floor and I very stupidly said out loud, oh, somebody dropped a 20. And my manager told me like, oh, we need to set that aside in case

somebody comes to claim it tonight. And I knew what the manager was doing. And I was like, no, nobody's going to claim this. It's the 20. And the manager got so serious that I was like, God damn it. They're going to make my life shitty if I don't give them this 20. And so, and of course I never saw the 20 again. It was never brought up again.

They just took the $20 from me and kept it I think the biggest bonanza I ever discovered was just in a parking lot I was going to a bookstore and I got out of my car and I looked down at the parking spot next to me And there's just $42 there Ford of the start of random $42 had spawned in the environment and I was like, well, this is mine now I'm sorry. I don't know what the rules are here, but I have no money and this is money and it's mine now.

Also, renting furniture. I bet you can probably still rent furniture, but it feels like in the world of Ikea, cheap garbage furniture, you'd be doing that instead of like spending a hundred a month to like lease a couch. Yeah. Maybe I'm out of touch. I don't know if there are still rent-a-centers. I never had to rely on one because so many people want to give you their couch when you're in your twenties.

Oh yeah. You, at least when you move to a major city, well also whenever I needed to get a couch, that was when I lived in Berkeley, California, which is a college town. So look, it's not an awesome couch you're getting, but you can get a free, if in 24 hours notice you want a free couch in Berkeley, California, you will find one on Craigslist. Yeah, a student is moving out

and they have no need for that anymore. You wanna watch the slip cover and everything though, but other than that. Me and my then roommate, we moved into a place, we found two couches that day, and we actually were like, oh, this first couch we got, our safety couch actually kind of sucks. So we dropped it by a dumpster by the end of the day

to make room in the U-Haul for the keeper free couch we got that day. You contributed to the couch economy. So they put up a flyer very high on electric power line and the odd combo of auto and sideshow Mel can't resist looking at it. Yeah, were they hanging out together? It's funny that Mel is the one who wants to know if it's for guitar lessons, the flyer.

Yeah, that makes it even funnier, you're right. Otto doesn't care and I guess they make the leap that Mel is too normal, he wouldn't knock it down, but Otto would because he's crazy enough to do it. Oh and Homer then, meanwhile, Homer and Bart survive and are fine in the next scene, because of course, they landed on Homer's back fat, so everything's fine. Well, I wish we got more of the line of people

being questioned about the bill, because I think we just get two of them. It's the old comedy rule of twos, right? I feel like you could have snuck five people's bits into this, but I guess they, again, making room for the celebrities later We missed a scene with sea captain Let's say because Tony Blair had said yes to doing the show

It feels you know like a lesser version of say the old money one where everybody lines up to proposition Abe for money it's such an easy comedic setup of Wacky character appears and makes their pitch to you of why they should get something. A series of amusing lies. Moe of course we also use him to get one more Hitler reference in here. It reminds me of Hitler North Dakota reference in season two. I don't know if Matt Groene would be annoyed by this because it is Moe just being ignorant. Yeah yeah. They're not invoking Hitler in his many atrocities. If this podcast research didn't make me do it, I wouldn't have known, I could not have

correctly answered this question Mo is given either. I didn't know it was Grover Cleveland on the bill, Bart has. Yeah, that was news to me. And then meanwhile, Snake, instead of just robbing them, is actually quite honest when he answers his question and leaves with respectfully. So once they've decided okay nobody's gonna claim it, they then ask who's gonna do it, and this is another scene that gave me a good chuckle here. That's the last of them. You did the right thing Bart, and now you can keep the money. Sweet. What am I going to do with $1,000? It's Bart's moon party from outer space.

We've got 2D to play in the base. Hmm, no one's touching the hors d'oeuvres. It's Bart's moon party from outer space. What? Bart, why don't you spend the money on something for Mom? She does so much for us. Well, someday I'd like to go on a nice vacation. We've gone on plenty of great vacations.

Yeah, but you always wind up kidnapped or on a chain gang. And I don't even want to get into what happened on our honeymoon. I still don't know why you had that photo enlarged. Oh forget it, but don't waste your money on me Great lady Great lady, they're keeping that joke in their pocket for the movie. Although that's not the first time Homer has been strapped to a wrecking ball Yeah, actually that's inside show Bob Roberts as well. They really like that gag. Yeah the Bart's Moon party stuff is funny. It's a wacky premise that a little boy would dream up but I like when we come back to reality and Bart is worried about people not eating the hors d'oeuvres that he apparently made for them. He's really more concerned about the party planning than watching

R2-D2 perform and then Homer wanders in somehow knowing the theme. Yes that he saw it and is singing along to it like that makes it like even better And I like the design of how does R2-D2 play the bass a character with no arms though by the time this episode aired the second prequel had come out and R2-D2 basically had been doing things almost as crazy as playing the bass in those movies. By the third prequel R2-D2 can fly and basically like trip people like he kills like five robots in it. I couldn't remember what he did after episode one. In the second one he chases after C-3PO in a long would-be Charlie

Chaplin kind of adventure through a robot factory and then at the opening of the third one he gets rockets to fly around for no good reason and then he drops an oil slick on enemy robots uses his booster rockets to light it on fire and then burns these robots to death. You know I'm wondering if they were allowed to put R2-D2 in this because of the whole Fox connection without depicting him accurately. Yeah, you're right. It is fully R2-D2 there.

It's Space Wars in a couple seasons when they finally do a more direct prequel parody sequence in that one. In the one where George Lucas is for some reason a very short man. Yeah, I don't know why they went for that. We'll get to it. Also the syncing of it, I do think they synced to a different track. I love that the song is crappy and it's like a 50s rocking song, but it looks like the track they recorded to was an actual more rocking song.

I like this kind of sleepy cocktail party music though. And Marge is specifically pointing out the Brazil and Florida episodes when she says you always end up kidnapped or on a chain gang. Not the only reference to Brazil in this episode. The Eric Giddens, this really is about revenge on Brazil, which they already did in the Krusty Becomes a Representative episode too.

But this is where the secret deleted scene is. After Marge leaves the room sadly, Bart is given one more pitch by Homer about what to do with the money. Oh, forget it. Bart, don't waste your money on me. Huh. Great lady.

Bart, I got a terrific idea for your money. We buy a McDonald's and we turn it into a Burger King. Then we burn it down for the insurance. Step two, the world thinks we're dead, right? So we set up shop in the Cayman Island. I'll get back to you. Woo hoo, I got my foot in the door. That's fun.

Yeah, I can see why they would cut that though. It's just a bunch of dialogue. It's funnier than Tony Blair. But it is funnier than Tony Blair. That's the level I play but I mean, yeah Well, we'll get to that. But yes, we then see the boys at school They're loving looking at this thousand dollar bill We see that Grover Cleveland's cross hatching totally does create the illusion of shadow that Millhouse can buy into and Nelson isn't wrong

That it's not worth a million dollars, but the internet tells me that a good Condition Grover Cleveland bill while still legal tender for a thousand dollars You can sell it for probably five thousand dollars right now I guess that's the reality of things but it is a funny sportswolder idea that a thousand dollar bill is worth a million dollars And Nelson, well, it's a good like dumb Nelson line too. And I like Bart's realization that this gives me an idea and that it leads to a museum of modern Bart. However, this is the stampy joke and not as funny. The stampy joke is a funnier version of this. I was thinking of the casino. Oh yeah actually it's Bart's

casino plus the stampy joke too. But then there was a recent episode where they had some kind of soiree in the tree house and there were a bunch of adults up there. I forget which one that was. That's when Homer rebuilds the tree house with the Amish. That's when Santa's Little Helper is a coward for not wanting to be burned to death trying to help Homer. Oh, that was the one. Okay, yeah, that was Nutslurm's Mackenzie. Suds McDuff. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Though the pitch of, we'll give you money, and this gives him an idea. This cut is to Bart's museum is funny, but Homer cutting to Homer, smashing into the ground, a sign that says, go away. Yeah, that's a funnier joke than actually just going to the next idea.

This episode is also full of Bart coming up with these dismissive nicknames for people like he calls Nelson and Millhouse do rags. And then later on he calls somebody bony Curtis. It's just a running thing throughout this episode. Yeah, that's true. Bart is being a Weisenheimer in this one in ways he has not been in a while. Also, I feel like there had to be a cut joke here when they enter the museum,

because there's characters who would only be there for a joke. One is that Abe Simpson is a security guard at it, and there's no joke there. And you can also spot Kearney walking into the place with his son with him. Oh, okay, I missed that. I also do like this joke of Bart's museum,

or the Museum of Modern Bart, get it, Art Bart, but they are treating the 200th episode as the early years and all of those accessories he used to have are also now museum pieces. What are we on, like 320 by this point? I think that's right, yeah. Here they're like, oh yeah, remember his lucky red cap, his skateboard, and his slingshot?

He hasn't touched these, and even the 200th episode is early years to them at this point. And meanwhile, Lisa complains that the exhibit is biased and sensitive and anti-feminist, which Bart says you can't whitewash history, Lise, which I think that we haven't played it in a little while. I feel like playing the jingle for sure sure Yeah, the exhibit is called the birth of Lisa a Simpson too many

And it has Lisa's diary in there, too But yeah, this joke works the same just to let you know that nothing ever changes This joke is making fun of Lisa for being too woke and complaining about things being exhibited in museums. Then we also get a Friends of the Museum bit, which this is pure rich guy humor of like, what do you get if you give like $5,000 to a museum? You get a tote bag, a magazine, and a phone message. I guess Art Forum still exists.

Oh, it's still around. Yeah, if you go, it's one of the like hundred remaining magazines. If you go to a Barnes & Noble or whatever else you've got around you, you'll still see it. It's a very high quality magazine. I would assume that most of their subscribers are in their 90s now. The rich 90 year olds. And we get a reference to the old days, the crank calls. It's been a very long time, I think.

They sometimes forget they buried it in season four. But like most of the jokes after the new Kid on the Block episode that was supposed to end it forever are jokes about them doing it. And now it's so distant for Moe that he doesn't even get that he was ever cranked called. Yeah, he thinks it'd be a fun premise for him to be crank called.

You know me, I love to laugh. Yeah, I wonder if it's, it feels like a good Azaria edition but I don't know. It's him just going like, ah, but you know me, I love to laugh. Like he's like, I don't know. Like that feels very natural in an Azaria way. I liked it.

And then Burns appears to ruin the fun. He lets Bart know that he can prove that it's his thousand dollar bill because it almost caved in his chest and left a exact bruise on it. And if his heart had been inside him at the time, it could have proved fatal. Also great. I like learning anything about Burns' anatomy or just how close he is to death. We did that episode with his fiance, and he said something like, oh, I better propose soon. I died earlier today. That's right.

He actually did die during the montage that happened earlier in the episode. That was a good joke, that was a good joke. Yeah. And also as Burns takes the $1,000 bill back, we get another yoink. Good old yoinks. Haven't heard those in a while.

And Krusty is like, the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix has better crap. I looked into this, by the way. Would you believe it closed on February 28, 2020, and not because of the pandemic? It would have closed, likely, because of the pandemic a month later. But it was just like lease issues and landlord issues,

but it was around that long, the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix. That is so funny that I would have seen a headline that's like, oh, it closed in 2020. And that's where I just would have stopped like, well, obviously closed in 2020. All these restaurants closed because of the pandemic, but it's that they ran out of money before whatever the month before the pandemic when they probably could have at least scammed the government out of a million dollars in PPP loans. Oh yeah, like a lot of us they missed the opportunity. And I was looking more into this because I don't think I've been to a Hard Rock Cafe. I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel

when I did a video game event way like over a decade ago. And I forgot this in Vegas. Yeah. And I forgot that this is still a kind of prolific restaurant chain. Planet Hollywood went away. There's like very, very, very few left, but there's a lot of hard rock cafes still around. Yeah, there was one Orlando is where these things still live because Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe are still there. I walked by the outside of both of them and I wanted to go into Planet Hollywood

But it was closed until like 4 p.m. And Disney Springs location So I didn't end up going and we walked by Hard Rock Cafe when we went to the Orlando City Walk in Universal But we decided to go to Bubba Gum Shrimp instead I kind of regret not going to Hard Rock Cafe because I actually did The only time I've been to a Hard Rock Cafe because I actually did, the only time I've been to a Hard Rock Cafe was at Orlando one when I was 14. So I could have gone 28 years later to the very same Hard Rock Cafe that's next to Universal Studios.

I guess they're all over the place. There's one in Tokyo. And I was looking more into this. Planted Hollywood. There's four locations now in hard rock cafe. There's 137. So if you want to find one, it's not hard to go to. I'm not sure if the food is good. I don't know. I don't think I've ever been to one. I've been to planet Hollywood once in Hollywood.

When I was, I think our podcast, the ride pals, I've done some good histories and reviews of the hard rock cafes around the world. I do think it is a more of a, not that there aren't American ones, but I almost think it is used for tourists of the world. I do think it is a more of a, not that there aren't American ones, but I almost think it is used for tourists of the world to go there and wear your Hard Rock Cafe shirts. Like I don't know if it's the status symbol internationally that it used to be. I feel like if I see an American wearing a

Hard Rock Cafe location shirt here to brag about going somewhere, like they are doing it in an ironic sense. I don't think anybody has them non-ironically in America. Wasn't that the reveal when Marge becomes a cop? She's wearing a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt because they didn't have her uniform ready yet? That's right. That's right. I don't even remember what, you know, historic items were at that Hard Rock when I ate there once. The only thing I remember is, you know, historic items were at that Hard Rock when I ate there once. The only thing I remember is when this was on a school field trip, our parents gave us money for like, here's your money for your trip.

And I didn't want to go to Hard Rock because it would be expensive. I wanted to save my money for, you know, merchandise, but the rest of my group wanted to go. So I was like, man, I'm going to have to spend like $20 at this place. But a bug flew into my chicken wings and I could prove it I was like no look there's a fly right there see it and they gave me those chicken wings for free and everybody was jealous Of me get so you chicken you had to eat around the bug or do they bring you new wings? They brought me new wings and didn't charge me. So very nice. Everybody was jealous of me. It also let me escape These are even worse when you're a child,

though these are the worst. When you go out to dinner and have to split a bill and it's just a pile of money in the middle, everybody feels like they're ripped off, but even more so when you're a child. Oh, thank God for Venmo. Now you live in the country of split bill is easy and no waiter or waitress will complain. You know, I used to be terrified of trying to split the bill in America, and I think they're adopting the Canadian ways now, because I was in Minneapolis the last time I was in America, and I was able to split the bill everywhere, and they brought out the little machine!

The little machine is appearing in America now! Oh, you know, I have seen that little machine in a few places, yeah, that's true. When I first started visiting Canada, I was like, what is this machine? And then it made sense, because they don't take your card away to some other place and then bring it back As always America a little behind Canada, but eventually we catch them So yes, they shut down the museum people return their buttons and discussed recycle them and discussed

But then we learned that Bart has actually made more money by running a museum and actually ends up with $3,000 for a vacation. And all of this was just to have a plot reason to explain why the Simpsons can take a very expensive vacation. When Swartzwell wrote the Africa one, it's because they won the ancient contest. Yeah. I feel like they wouldn't even bother with the whole first act of justification. They would just send them there. At least they're still thinking about the economic aspect of taking an international trip with your entire family.

$3,000 seems very inexpensive, even for 21 years ago for a family of four. For a family of four and a sixth person in aid to fly to London. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy how cheap it is. I think, but yeah, you're right. We've complained about this episode specifically, but it really did bug us both the destination wedding episode in the recent season where they all go to

Scotland. It is a rich guy problem episode. And you know, that could be a fun perspective sometimes where it's like, oh, what is this life like? But the perspective was, Oh, don't you hate these destination weddings when your rich friends invite you to this all expenses paid vacation. You got to take time out of your life to go to Cancun for a week. And what for a wedding? Who cares? I get it though. They're very rich Simpsons writers and they only have their life experience. I get it. I had a COVID wedding and no one was invited

because they legally couldn't be there. Yeah, we celebrated eventually, that was nice. And then we get a tease of sweetness that they're gonna actually like do something emotional with Marge, but then they decide, no actually, Marge doesn't get to pick where they go on vacation, it's grandpa in our next clip.

Okay, for mom I'll do it. Where should we go? Well, I'd like to return to Brazil, but I hear the monkey problem is even worse now. I wanna go to England. How come? Back in 1944, I was stationed over there and I met a beautiful girl.

Edwina, my slowly opening flower, I'm shipping out in the morning. Won't you make this night memorable? Anything for you, my brave yank. I say... nice. Little did I know, I really was shipping out in the morning. Little did I know I really was shipping out in the morning. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] I'll never forget you, Edwina! But I did!

Until just now. Grandpa, that's so romantic. We gotta go to England. That sounds great! But only if your father promises to behave. Marja, being my best behavior. You have my word as a gentleman and a lady. Now let's see, which rifle should I bring?

Grrr. The spontaneous appearance of a gun cabinet in the kitchen, that feels Swartzwater-y. Yeah, I do like that. And hey, remember the voice of Jane Leeves saying one sentence, she'll be back in about 15 minutes to say two more sentences. It's a real waste of Jane Leeves, who's a great actress, who's very funny. And this made me regret. It gave me the sad reminder again that she was never used in a sideshow Bob context.

Hmm. Yeah, that's true. I never thought about that. They got everybody. Well, they got a lot of the people. For a good episode, they brought on John Mahoney and they got back David Hyde Pierce. Yeah, that's a great one. Did I use Jane Leaves for that one? And it is such a predictable British voice they do for it, but I definitely feel like they probably would have used this framing anyway because they do like Abe as a World War II veteran, but I mean this is a parody of the then recent Saving Private Ryan film and also all of the Medal of Honor video game. Oh yeah, was

the music evoking whoever did the music for that film? I think so, I think intentionally, yeah. They first have to get a knock on Brazilian Tourism Board once more, making fun of the Wild Monkey jokes is specifically which had made the Brazilian tourism board the most mad. Listen to that podcast, blame it on the Lisa to know all the in-depth history of Brazil versus the Simpsons. I'm actually learning how to say Brazil in Japanese for some reason because I'm way behind

you on Duolingo. I'm only like 30 days in. One of the four countries I've learned how to say in Japanese is Brazil, which is Buda Jiru. Oh, wow. It's an interesting one they brought in. You're deciding to do a little duolingo, what, ahead of your trip? Yes, just to at least have some knowledge in my mind.

So I can say, Burujirujin desuka? I can ask if people are Brazilian, I'm sure it'll come in handy. Yeah. Ha ha ha. You know, I wonder if they picked that because, you know, I think Brazil is one of the most populated

with Japanese. It is, it is. Ethnic people, yeah, yeah. Okay, that's probably it. Yeah, no, I remember that. because I think Brazil is one of the most populated with Japanese ethnic people. Yeah, yeah, okay, that's probably it. Yeah, no, I remember that. Right now, I'm learning how to say I don't want to eat something, or like, tofu wa tabemasen. Yeah, I don't eat tofu.

I eat tofu occasionally. In terms of eating, I've learned, is that cake? Cake is tasty. I think you start with like how to say rice and water please. I'll have some sushi and rice. Oh yeah, sushi. These are the fun words you learn when you start up Duolingo.

Gura jiru, love it. But Abe steals this emotional story from Marge, but for no good reason anyway. It matters here and a tiny bit at the start of act two and then at the very end. steals this emotional story from Marge, but for no good reason anyway. It matters here and a tiny bit at the start of Act Two and then at the very end, but otherwise it does not matter this war widow story. Yeah, I wish they would have done more with this.

It's just an excuse to get them out there, but they know why they're here. This is just a celebrity showcase, and of course, The Simpsons had never been there in the history of the show, which is surprising. And we don't need to say this, but The Simpsons has a huge fan base in the UK. It is kind of shocking they didn't do a Simpsons go to England story until this one or anything about them in Britain, because yeah, we've had on multiple British and Irish guests on

who have, you know, talked about that. It is huge in that neck of the world because I think it did inform a lot of our generation, but overseas what their views of America were. It's like, Oh, this is the United States, huh? All of these things. It is their window into the nineties. America was through the Simpsons and I think it was that Al Jean only learned really by his second administration how big it was in the UK

because he did more interviews and documentaries for there. Yeah I think he had his honeymoon in Ireland. Maybe he held back on it for so long because Al Jean is a proud Irish-American and still holds it against the British for colonizing his land. We head to England right from the start. They're at Heathrow Airport. We see a bunch of Sherry Bobbins is in the air. Al Clotson very smartly just reuses his musical cue. Yeah, cut every corner.

I was happy to hear that as they're all floating by. I would think Algene would remember that. I wonder who suggested what there of like the Clausen say, you know, we already have like a Mary Poppins type theme or did Al Jean because he wrote the majority of that episode that he suggested. Well, it just made me think, Oh, that was a fun song. Anyway, back to this. Yep.

Yeah. So we're straight away with the guest stars, and you know, the Simpsons, for the longest time, have always wanted a former, or even sitting, American president to guest on the show, and they've never pulled it off to this day. They still haven't. Yeah. Not even with Obama.

Yeah, not even with Obama, and we've talked about this before. It's one of the most embarrassing things that's ever happened to the show. They built an entire episode around a Michelle Obama guest appearance and she didn't do it. So it's just someone doing her voice in a role that is very flattering to Michelle Obama.

It's insane that that happens. It's a sad moment though. I think now they could get her Michelle Obama. She does a lot of appearances. If she was promoting a book, I bet she'd do it now. Yeah. I mean, screw politics. Barack Obama is an entertainment executive.

He's making things happen. Yes, I think they got a shot at were she to become president and the election hasn't happened yet, but I do think they've got a shot with Harris. I think they have a shot with Vice President Harris currently, listeners, couple weeks, who knows. Yeah, well, she's doing a lot of things to turn off young people.

I don't wanna get into that here, but maybe just showing up on The Simpsons for five seconds. That'll rehabilitate her, I guess, her public image. Al Jean has been going hard for it, that is for sure. To let you know where things are in the hierarchy of stuff, American presidents, they're like, not doing The Simpsons, thanks, but no. But if you ask a sitting Prime Minister

of the United Kingdom to appear on your show, he actually will appear on your show. And that is Prime Minister Tony Blair. Boo! I think the issue with The Simpsons is, outside of Barack Obama, every American president was born in the 40s or earlier. So they're like, what is this rude cartoon?

I was 50 when this came on the air. No Republican would ever do it. I think their best chance would have been in 2009 when every blue comedian loved doing comedy with Donald Trump, they could have gotten Donald Trump on that. And I'm glad they never did have Donald Trump guessed on The Simpsons. Yeah, yeah, they dodged that bullet. But that would have been their one chance you know look up all of the funny oh Megan Mullally did such a funny thing with Donald Trump oh boy hilarious. But based on the look on her face it

feels like she was forced into it so I don't want to put any blame on her. No no yeah I know. We've seen them singing the Green Acres song together. Same with the SNL cast members who nobody pointed a gun at their head to be in scenes with Donald Trump, but you could tell who was choosing to do it to not get fired, you know, but, but anyway, yes, let's put a different man on trial here. Tony Blair. Let's hear war criminal Tony Blair. Welcome the Simpsons to the United Kingdom.

Hello. Welcome to the United Kingdom. Hello, welcome to the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Tony Blair? Why are you greeting lowlifes like us at the airport? Because I want to encourage all the world to come see the beauty of 21st century Britain. Would an American dollar encourage you to leave us alone? No, but thank you. Tony, I mean Mr Prime Minister, what should we see first?

There's so much to see here. Parliament, Stratford-on-Avon, the White Cliffs of Dover. Oh, and you Americans love castles. There's a huge one in Edinburgh, the city where I was born. The place I was born is now a gator farm. Smashing. Maybe you could give us a personal tour of your country. I'd love to, but I'm late for an appointment.

I'm greeting a lovely Dutch couple at Gate 23. Cheerio! Well, I can't believe we met Mr. Bean! If Rowan Atkinson had been in this, this would have been funnier. Yeah, I mean, this is all built to flatter him. And apparently this role was carefully negotiated via his press secretary Alistair Campbell. Apparently this role was carefully negotiated via his press secretary Alastair Campbell and originally he was going to be handing out poodles at the airport but there was something in the press about how the perception of Tony Blair is that he was Bush's poodle and they wanted to scrap that idea entirely to not remind people of that nickname which didn't really seem to stick that much.

I didn't see too many Google results based on Tony Blair poodle, Tony Blair Bush's poodle. I think British people use that against him more than Americans did. Just, I mean, also too, most Americans only think of a British prime minister if they do something in relation to American policy. Like if I didn't follow funny British left wing people on Twitter, I wouldn't know anything about Keir Starmer other than he also supports funding and genocide. But that's how I knew Tony Blair back in 2003 as well. Of like, oh he also wants to invade a country

and kill millions of people. Like he also wants that. I really only got secondhand information from comedians on UK politics. I at least have more comedians informing me than I did back in 2003. But I did find a December 2003 Telegraph article on this. And I even gave them my email address to read behind the paywall, but I didn't pay anything. So I think Al Jean on the commentary misremembers that poodle thing because in the Telegraph article he says the joke was that he was handing out corgis for free.

Oh, that makes more sense because corgi is known as the royal family dog. Poodle is a French thing, so I didn't get what they were going for there. But in the article he says Blair's team did request cutting the corgi joke because that was too similar to people calling him Bush's poodle at the time. They're like, any dog picture of him, get rid of that. We don't want that. The Telegraph article had Gene saying that it was an eight months of correspondence with Alistair Campbell to get it. Gene in

that article says that he was in London to promote him and his wife and a fellow Simpsons writer. They were in London for the 300th episode promotional tour. And that episode aired in February, 2003, or at least aired in the US. I think the UK premier date would be near that. And I just mentioned that because from February to March of 2003, Tony Blair, despite many, a major rebellion of his Labour Party in parliament, he was like, yes, we are helping America invade Iraq. So while he is going through this big moment in his administration a shameful moment his administration He sets aside an afternoon at 10 Downing Street to record this how nice I bet it lightened the mood a bit for him

Honestly, I do think Al Jean alleges this on the commentary that he was told keep it a big secret and then Al Jean thinks that he was intentionally keep it a big secret. And then Al Jean thinks that he was intentionally leaked to a friendly newspaper to photograph him exiting 10 Downing Street and leak it to a friendly paper for the Blair administration. And I would bet that got him some headlines that were not about a very unpopular invasion that Tony Blair supported.

Yeah, I guess good promotion for an episode that would air in eight months. And it gets people to talk about the Simpsons instead of, you know, a genocide, which, hey, you get that to this very day. Yeah, yeah. And hey, it shows he was a good sport. Apparently his goals were promote tourism, which is literally what he says to the Simpsons, and to mention Edinburgh where he was born and he got it. And that's what comedy is about. Doing what your guest star says they want you to do.

No jokes made at their expense. One last thing from that Telegraph article. It describes Al Jean as a tall 42 year old Harvard graduate with a voice not dissimilar to Homer Simpson's, which I'm like, what? Uh, no. Not in any... Have they been watching The Simpsons sped up over there? What's going on? To a British person, does Al Jean's American accent sound not dissimilar to Homer Simpson?

Like that's insane. Yeah, I don't know. Like are they thinking of John Frank? Professor Frank? Yeah, I have no clue why. You know, The Telegraph was doing a lot of bad reporting back then, I think. That one especially. Al Jean sounds like the nerd who goes, why does it have to be zany? That's exactly what he-

He'll admit that. He'll admit that. Yes, yeah. Yeah, there's that great story on the front commentary of somebody, of Al Jean not knowing that Dan Casleneta was making fun of his voice. He does make fun of his own voice, because he'll play it up and he'll say that some people think I have a nerdy voice. And Tony Blair exits on a jetpack which is a reference to the James Bond film Thunderball which I have not watched that movie but I pulled up the clip of the jetpack and it is a hilarious sequence because he's supposed to look very cool but he looks like a total dork in his very slow jetpack it is a hilarious sequence because he's supposed to look very cool

but he looks like a total dork in his very slow jetpack getting away. Slow jetpack. I also like that Homer is wearing a Hawaiian shirt to visit London like he is a very obvious like tourist. He's doing all the ugly American stuff. Well Bob you must have flown in through Heathrow when you went there does this remind you at all of it? I can't tell you if this is accurate or not. All we see is one gate. It's the beginning of Act Two and the end of Act Three, so I couldn't tell you. So they hire a cab. I feel like they're even saying it in the British style of hiring a cab. You wouldn't say that in America. Yes, you'd say you catch a cab.

And yeah, I like mining for what I think is John Swartzwalder Gold, and I feel like this is very him where if you run into a British person they're obligated to be your butler if they look a certain way. And their briefcase impossibly holds a fresh steaming kettle of tea. Very good sir. They also will say very good sir. They must. They have to do that. No fancy British guys they're always funny. It's always fun to laugh at them. I prefer- Coming up Lord Daft Wager. I love Lord Daft Wager. That's another good joke too.

But first they arrive at the Buckingham Pay Less Motel, which I liked at Homer. I used it as the opening gag because I liked it. Homer says the country everybody loves America. A joke about Hugh Grant's, a hiring of a sex worker. Eh, let's chuckle. Little dated, that's like almost a decade before this happened. Also, let's chuckle. Little dated, that's like almost a decade before this happened.

Also, they have three different jokes about we saved you in World War II. And I feel like Homer misremembering that the Vietnam War was saving England. That's a good joke to me about how Americans refused to believe they lost Vietnam. Yeah, I like it. We get to hear Harry Shearer, I feel like he does the majority of British people talking, which Harry Shearer is like, I'd call him 20% British

because his wife is Welsh and he's been married to her for decades. And of his many homes, he does own one in the Notting Hill area of London. Isn't he doing a lot of his recording from there for the Simpsons? It does seem like a lot of Lachaud is from London I feel like the success or the reason they're finally filming

another Spinal tap movie is because of the popularity in the UK and financing there I think he does a good British accent I also I guess just noted it because this feels like Harry is doing more voices in this episode than he's done in a little while. I guess he's kind of fading to the background a bit as he's getting harder to work with. But I like that he's the guy giving the dry British wit that Homer takes straight and is like, that's better, that's good. Don't give me any dry British wit. But then we get Abe calling up random women on the phone, and I have this clip just because it's the last time we're seeing Abe until the end of the episode. Did you spend an unforgettable night with a soldier from the US Army in 1944?

You did? Was he from the 1st Infantry Division? He was! And was he a gentle, caring lover? He was. Sorry I bothered you. I don't know if I'm ever gonna find her. Oh, Dad.

I wish there was something I could do. Touch that mini bar and you're dead! Oh! And so they abandon Abe Simpson at the hotel and he is in no more seats. He just goes, oh. Do you think it's just because they didn't want to write an Abe joke for meeting any of the celebrities?

Yeah, I guess I would just eat up more time and there's no celebrity that Abe could meet that he would know about. Do you think it's just because they didn't want to write an Abe joke for meeting any of the celebrities? Yeah, I guess I would just eat up more time and there's no celebrity that Abe could meet that he would know about these are all Contemporary celebrities they had a list and they're like, all right Who's the most famous person that we could get there? I I definitely think that they They were mentioned posh and Becks on here David Beckham and posh spice But I guess Victoria Beckham I I should call her not Posh Spice, but I wonder if they even reached out to them. I feel like they might have.

I feel like there was a list and these are the ones they got. And they got, to be fair, some pretty big ones. These are big British names. They really are. For 2003, getting Tony Blair or the next guest, they were pretty big. So we have a scene transition

with the Batman 66 style British flag moving into the camera. And in comes JK Rowling. Now we all know what she did, but in her defense, it's very hard to follow up Harry Potter with new books. Just cut her some slack, everybody. I think we're being a little too mean to JK Rowling about those new books.

Oh yeah, and all the transphobia, that's part of it too. Let's not cut her slack there. Yes, yeah. She sucks. There's no easy way to get around that. Like she super sucks. It was a get then. People would still want her in things now, sadly. Like she is still welcome in more spaces than she should be. Though I do feel like any Simpsons writer under the age of 45, if they were told by Al Jean and I got JK Rowling they might go I would hope that would prevent her from being on the show now, but I don't know I don't know But what Lisa says is true then though. I don't like that Lisa likes Harry Potter books also I feel like even 2003 Lisa, she shouldn't be reading these

books and liking them. I feel like JK Rowling should be spending more time writing. If you go to her Twitter feed and I don't recommend this, I feel like she spends most of her time writing clever replies to the most hateful things people write at her, reply at her. And I feel like that's embarrassing even if you're not a hateful bad person. Yeah, yeah. Who's not trying to, you know, lead digital mobs against many, many different trans people. I mean, I also, if I could just like personally, another thing that I truly abhor about what J.K.

Rowling does as a transphobe is how she weaponizes cis gay people like myself in defense of that. That she's like, oh, well, you know, cis gay people, they tell me they love that I attack trans people all the time. And that has led me to reply to her in the past and be like, fuck off with this. You don't speak for me. Like that one personally riles me up in my own way because she's using my identity as again, a straight woman who lives in a fucking castle. Like, look look I could go on all day about this but why don't I play the clip look it's jk rowling author of the harry potter books you've turned a generation of kids on to reading thank you young muggle can you tell me what happens at

the end of the series he grows up and marries you is that what you want to hear yes and that's all she did in the episode. Yeah, I mean we could talk about her for a while. It's not bring everybody down, obviously. It is garbage how she's going to continue to make money off of Harry Potter for a very long time, although I like how so many people from the series have really distanced themselves publicly from her and are giving money to charity. And it is weird for me to see, knowing what I know about her, that kids are still getting into the books

and the parents are on board. And it's a weird thing to say, maybe your kids shouldn't read this, and I think those books are garbage anyways, but also at the same time, every kid has to read Harry Potter or else they cannot fit in with other kids. So that's the gamble there.

Like my wife, her nieces are reading Harry Potter and I made the joke like I would bring up during dinner. You know what she said, right? You know you're supporting, right? And then smack the books out of those little girl's hands. Just hand them a Tales of Earthsea book or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's just I guess she just will continue getting eleven-y billion dollars a year for the rest of her life just because it is just the thing you read when you're a kid. Every kid goes through the Harry Potter phase. And I've noticed this with parents that no matter what the age or the gender,

there's always a Harry Potter phase for kids. I hate that that is the reality too. I mean, also I just went to, you're going to hear me say this for six months of podcast listeners, but I just went to Orlando. But the Harry Potter lands in there are as popular as they ever were. Some of the longest lines, everybody wants to eat there. I didn't go to London, but I walked through fake Harry Potter London in the Gringotts Alley, Diagon Alley, and it's still very popular.

I mean, when I went to Universal and Disneyland or Disney World, I heard so many more British accents of people there than I heard in Disneyland. I heard so many more British accents of people there than I heard in Disneyland. It hit me of like, oh yeah, for relatively flying to Orlando as compared to California is an easier overseas flight for the British. That's why there were so many British in Orlando

and I got sick of hearing those British accents to be honest. Whenever I see, I went to visit the Hogs. Oh, it's Hogwarts and Diagon Alley though. There's only Hogwarts in the Hollywood one that you've been when I look around I'm like this all looks very great. I'm really glad people are into it. It's cool that they're all these fans I just wish it wasn't tainted by her. It's a real shame and they started coming out when I was in my late teens I was way too old for them So I didn't read them or anything like that, but it stinks

It stinks that yeah one of the most popular book series of all time, probably the most popular book series of all time, is associated with this hateful, hateful person. And they're about to reboot it with a new series on Max. It's a 10 year plan. Yep. And yes, listeners, it's Hogsmeade. Hogwarts is the ride and Hogsmeade is the area. OK, just to be specific. Yes, listeners, it's Hogsmeade. Hogwarts is the ride and Hogsmeade is the area, okay?

Just to be specific. But something I did like though going there is that now a fake drink has surpassed the butter beer there for me. Lafou's Brew in Disney World, which is like a fake apple cider that has like the fake foam on it and everything, it's tastier than butter beer, objectively so. Get that Lafouse Brew. It gets a thumbs up from me at Magic Kingdom. I probably would just try to find a real beer. That's more my speed. But I guess it would

be again, $15. In Orlando for I think $18, you can get butter beer and then they put a little rum in it. And I mean a little rum. Well, I think we tried to do that in California and there was a huge process that involved going to different locations. That's right. The guy said like, so you can't buy butter beer here and then walk it over to there and buy a shot of liquor and then you put it in the drink. I can tell you, you can do that. Not worth it.

You know, my last thought on Harry Potter from this scene is just when she asked what's the ending and it's just, you know, in 2003 everybody's like, Oh my God, how will it end if you're a big Harry Potter fan? And I was talking about funny British leftists. I follow on Twitter, the YouTuber Sean and streamer S H A U N and it's the skull avatar. He's one of the funniest people on social media I love. and he did a full reading that he had never read any of the Harry Potter books and he decided to read them all while chronicling all the horrible things JK says. And his thought on the last book is he couldn't believe that the final line, not counting

the epilogue, the final line of the book is Harry Potter deciding that he wants his slave to make him a sandwich. And that really is the last line of the final non-epilogue chapter. You see, I know very little about these books, but I know what goes on in them because for like 20 years, so many of my adult friends were reading them and watching the movies and stuff. Harry Potter has a slave house elf, and his last thought is, it'd be really nice if he'd made me a sandwich And I read that book, but I never thought of that until Sean made that point like isn't that pretty crazy

That's how the books I guess by the time this episode aired the fifth book order of the Phoenix had just come out the previous summer So we were hitting like peak Potter hype I only read books six and seven look I had friends and they told me they were good. It's their fault. I'm not blaming them, but I did fall into the hype a couple years after this episode. I can give a shit about JK in this episode. I fell into the hype for a few years

and everything she has done since the last book has of course turned me off to her, but yes, she sucks. Everyone had a Harry Potter phase, I think. Maybe now not so much, but it still happens. You know, you don't have in your past the Harry Potter phase, you can be proud of that. I don't have student debt, so hey. Hey, I don't have student debt anymore, and I have two degrees, Buster. I'm knocking down doors with them, left and right.

So after this, we then get to a joke where they make clear they never tried to get this person as a guest star. Yes, Judy Dench. Mm-hmm. Though this does feel like they're checking off boxes. They're on the double decker tour bus and then they go to a chip shop. I did go to the Epcot fake fish and chip shop there and boy is it good. It was mm-hmm. That was it. They make some very good fish and chips in Epcot's fake London. There's not a lot to talk about in this episode, so I'll say I like salmon and chips. Try it if you see it.

It's not as common as cod or white fish, fried white fish, but it is delicious. I've had that a couple times in my new area of Seattle. We both live in battling towns of what is the most salmon-y town in North America. I think Vancouver wins the salmon wars. That's good because I like eating them. The Simpsons, when they had to reference salmon

from a place, they did Vancouver salmon, not Seattle salmon, that's true. And I will say, so this is Judi Dench's Fish and Chips. I think this is a parody of the real-life restaurant chain Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips. Are you familiar with this, Henry? No, no I am not. It was an Ohio-based restaurant chain.

I believe it's still around. It was very popular in the 70s, and it was a fast food restaurant named after the British actor Arthur Treacher. I grew up with one nearby. My grandma loved this fast food restaurant, so I have had so many meals with my grandma at Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips. And it looks like the one I used to go to is still around, so I did a Google Maps search for it. And it is in Boardman, Ohio, but it looks like they dropped the Arthur

Treacher's license and now they're just Captain Arthur's, an independent restaurant that just serves all the same food. So if you're in Boardman, Ohio, check out Captain Arthur's. I last ate there with my grandma like in 2009, but it was pretty good. Wow, they can still call it captain Arthur's after all that. That's so funny. Yeah. I don't think they're cashing in on the legacy of Arthur Treacher. I can't tell you one movie.

I can't name an Arthur Treacher movie. That's so funny. When I look back on it as a kid, I did go to what are basically fish and chip places like captain D's and long John Silver are fish chips. Like you buy the same thing you would get at a British fish and chip places like Captain D's and Long John Silver are? Fish and chips like you buy the same thing you would get at a British fish and chip place Which is a pile of fries and then a golden Heavily breaded white fish that's been fried and not one vegetable in it, which of course is a child I love yeah, it looks like there are two remaining Arthur Treacher's fish and chips left, and

they're both in Ohio, so I recommend you swing by while you can. And I guess the joke here, too, is like, Judi Dench is one of the most famous British actresses in the world, and she is very classy, so instead they write her as a, ooh, what's this, and type who's beating up the squeaky voice Britishie. Voiced by Dan Casolinetta. And this is where they say they cut a bond girl style Fantasy of Homer wanting to get with Judy Dench also Homer being an extreme American He thinks fish and chips is a you know vegetarian food because it's fish

I guess then they had to Harrods which is a very fancy store apparently though If you look up news about Harrods in the last 10 years It's mainly about their many scandals of sexual harassment and abuse and racist practice. Oh, yeah I guess it's been going on since 1849 a luxury department store apparently I've never said foot in Harrods as I was doing research on this episode a new tell-all from the BBC a new tell-all from the BBC, a heavily reported one, about how the now-dead, long-time owner of Harrods, he has been accused of multiple women of long-time, like sexual abuse and harassment,

and using his position to take advantage of them. So that, instead of the legacy of Harrods being, oh, it's expensive to buy perfume there, it should instead be that it's a haven of horrible. Oh, and also if you were a non-white employee of a woman, you were also treated raciously as well as sexist. Yeah. This is hot off the presses as of this recording, we're recording this like six

weeks before the episode goes live. I think. Yeah. Yeah. There were other ones like going back to 2014, there were accusations of mistreatment there too. But these ones came out about the owner because he was one of the richest men in England, so it only waited. And of course, people are now bringing it up of like, oh, here's another

like asshole who was friends with Keir Starmer and Tony Blair and all of these things. So hey, they're just like American politicians, friends with these awful monsters. We get a Prince Albert in a can joke in the background which I chuckled at that it's age yeah the parent had to explain that as a prank call to me a long time that wasn't the prank call we did well because like my dad was a big chewer of tobacco but those came in pouches not in a can and you never heard about Prince Albert's chewing tobacco either yeah I didn't it took me a long time to unpack that joke and what it meant,

because I've never seen Prince Albert in a can. I assume this joke dates back to the invention of the telephone. Yeah. But you know what? Refrigerators are still running to this day, so that prank call can still work. You can't stop them.

I can't imagine a day where a home will not have a refrigerator and it will be running. Then we also find out that Homer beat up a soccer fan because Giggs got a yellow card in the box, which makes no sense to even Homer, which even I don't understand and I didn't want to do the research to figure out. Giggs is a soccer player, by the way. A real guy, Ryan Giggs. And then we get a joke that they even on the commentary are like, I

don't know if this is true and I think they were told by British people that this isn't true. This was a misinformation by David Merkin. It was something that he was insisting on putting in this episode. He said, oh you won't believe it when you go to Britain the chocolate, the candy, it's way sweeter than it is in America and that is not true. I can't imagine that a candy in England could possibly have more sugar and corn syrup laden into it than a candy manufactured in America. And I looked up reddits from British people going like, yeah, this shit don't make sense. It isn't sweeter here.

Especially if you're getting higher quality sweets. In America, if you're getting just like cheap candy garbage, they're gonna bump up the sugar content to cover up any of the you know lower quality materials in the food I had heard this from British people many times before but when I look this up in a few forums of people reacting to it This specific joke in this episode or the idea that British candy is sweeter It's British people replying, I've had American candy and it doesn't taste less sweet to me. It just tastes faker to me. Like they use worse chocolate. It's ashy chocolate. It's crappier chocolate. Like chocolate is richer and I have barely

eaten British chocolate. I have had a Cadbury cream egg or two that was manufactured in the UK and it is way creamier and Chocolatier than an American Cadbury, but I wouldn't call it sweet Yeah, I think just higher quality and so far in this episode. We've had Bart call his friends do rags He's called Burns boney Curtis this time. He says look tea bag when he's referring to the candy man And he says fork over the brown, which we're getting into heroin parody territory here and of course Brown, the heroin is Brown as well. So maybe this is the start of it. We then dive head first into a train spotting parody right down to using a

instrumental track of the Iggy Pop song, Lust for Life. Now, Bob, have you seen Trainspotting? No, I don't know why I never got around to seeing it. It's something I want to see, especially after blank check that their Danny Boyle series, I realized, oh, I haven't seen so many of his movies, but yeah, huge gap. The vast movie road I'm paving right now. I hadn't seen Trainspotting since my teens, which is a great time to watch Trainspotting,

I think. A teen in the 90s. Yeah, sheltered suburban teen. You're like, yeah, this is life. This is what real life is like. No, I mean, this and Requiem for a Dream gave everybody all of their facts of what they think doing heroin is like. If you've never done heroin, you're like, well, it must just be what's in Trainspotting.

The point of the movies is not this, but I think I didn't watch them as a teen because I thought I know these drugs are bad. Leave me alone. I was scared to watch it as a teen because I had heard it was disgusting. And there is at least for a relatively mainstream movie, it has some of the grossest imagery you would see in a nineties movie back then. Multiple times of seeing shit on screen. You will see it. It also is an amazing, like you can't stop watching it.

It is just full of this such creative visuals to express the feeling of being high on heroin, the perfect day section to the Lou Reed song, Perfect Day, where the rent boy character overdoses. It is just visually framed amazingly. You do really feel like you're going through an experience. It is so visceral and it's full of just great acting. There are a couple of times where I feel like, boy, should I turn on the subtitles here because these are some Scottish accents on screen.

There's been some times when people are speaking English, but their Scottish British accents are so thick or so unknown to me that I often would have to switch on the subtitles. And this is the opening. If you want to see what they're parodying, you'd only need to watch like the first two minutes of Trainspotting to see most of it, because this is the opening chase to lust for life that starts the movie. Like Bart and Lisa running down the street, the jump down the stairs though they don't get into a boat and then row the Thames in Trainspotting.

Now if you want to talk about the joke arms race, Family Guy beat Simpsons to the punch by about three years because I look this up, I remember the Family Guy parody. The episode is called Love Thy Trophy, it's from the year 2000 the end credit sequence is after Stewie gets addicted to pancakes and the whole baby on the ceiling thing happens. Ah okay I'm not surprised Simpsons was you know in 2003 is when they do their Trainspotting parody of a 1996 film or maybe it was even earlier it was 96 in the US. If you have Prime Video you can watch it in beautiful 4k now when you see shit on the wall it's in 4k. You can tell it's real.

I've never seen T2 the sequel to Trainspotting. Now I think I'll finally watch it having just re-watched this. I still think it hits and though it's also funny in the movie there's a sequence where it's like oh nobody at the club wants to get with Rentboy, the character played by Ewan McGregor, and it's like, he's not supposed to be hotter than the hot guy in the movie, but he is a gorgeous, gorgeous man. I guess they still had to cast the movie star in the movie.

And also the section in the movie where they go to London, and it is like a satirical parody of like a series of commercials for like visit London. These are Scottish guys and one of them moves to London and it's about ooh London fancy pants. All of the clips they show like what defines London? They show Carnaby Street.

They show all of the things the Simpsons go to in this episode. So both of them are checking the boxes like I don't know what's the obvious touring London bullshit and of course Carnaby Street is the Soho section of London that is home to the innovative boutiques and shops associated with London's fashion of the mid-60s the mod okay I was wondering I was like is this mod do I have to look this up and I guess I was right that's what Carnaby Street is I guess now it's like going to Hayden Ashbury in San Francisco. You go to a place that used to be something in the sixties and hasn't been something in a long time. Oh, I've been there and the unremarkable, I think.

It was on my first trip and now probably I was on my first trip to the San Francisco area. And I would bet now I'd be going like, boy, it's really changed since 2006. It's like where we lived in Berkeley. There's a bunch of plaques that say counterculture happened here once. Right next to where they're like bulldozing a park where an important thing happened. We get the long pardon Lisa. They're high.

They're strung out on candy. They see the baby crawling the ceiling, which is a terrifying moment in trains. And we covered this in, I think one of the Beavis and Butt-Head podcast, but scientifically sugar does not make children hyperactive I don't need to go into it it's a big snopesy thing that is still peddled around as this is true like all my kids they had so much sugar today they're bouncing off the walls. I love it you pointed it out that after a couple of cornholeo episodes even their teacher in the show goes like I don't think that's true. They had to

address all of the Neil deGrasse Tysons in the audience. The kids are strung out. It also is like too obvious a joke to me of like, candy is drugs. Like you see that a million times. I heard it once said by a UCB teacher of like, everybody's third sketch in class is

what if sugar is drugs. Then we cut to Homer and Marge on the London Eye, which I only know as a landmark because Spider-Man fought Mysterio there and far from home. That's the one I didn't see. You know, if you want to tour Europe with old Spidey, I like 30 minutes of that movie,

and eventually I guess you'll see it. But Tom Holland is, I believe, a Londoner, and so that's not a coincidence the final battle is in London. They're on the London Eye, and this is where there is a rather mean joke at Led Zeppelin's expense. Holy, I don't think we'll be able to find the kids from up here. No, no, let's just look. There's Big Ben, there's Piccadilly Circus, there's Jimmy Page, one of the greatest thieves of American black music, whoever walked the earth.

But there's the kids! Look at those filthy urchins. Surely they could never be taught proper manners. One gold sovereign says I could do just that. Oh, it's a bet, Lord Daftwager. You can't bet on my kids! This is America, pal! Don't worry, we'll find more wagers. I love you, Lord Daftwager. Yes, and I you.

Yes, quite. That's a good joke. I love Lord Daft Wager and his lover. They are great. I love that he... That already it's about that he'll make a bet on anything. Even the setup of My Fair Lady. Yes, but it's about like two gay lovers. This is their kink, I guess.

Al Jean makes this point. I agree with it. That especially in the film version of My Fair Lady. It's like, I agree with it, that especially in the film version of My Fair Lady, it's like, well no, he wouldn't fall in love with Eliza Doolittle, he's fucking his friend. Like, they're gay. Yeah, Rex Harrison, that's what Stewie from Family Guy is based off of. Going back to Family Guy.

And Stewie is not heterosexual either. Also, I do still chuckle at a joke of The Simpsons pitching what could be another episode's worth of plot and just avoiding it. I'm like, no, no, we're not doing a My Fair Lady parody here. The Simpsons pitching what could be another episode's worth of plot and just avoiding it. I'm like, no, no, we're not doing a My Fair Lady parody here. Homer briefly becomes a Simpsons writer with an axe to grind with that Jimmy Page comment, which I agree with. But it does feel like somebody on the commentary said, didn't Dana Gould come up with this? Sounds like a Dana Gould statement specifically, yeah.

Which I didn't know this that well. I think listeners recently I said something else of like that made it clear I haven't listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin or remember it well But there are multiple YouTube videos you can find online that case by case go through like yeah This is entirely like here is a long riff from a song that they just fully stole here are lyrics They fully stole they have lost court cases or settled court cases on musicians. They stole these rock songs from. Led Zeppelin still is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. And they have great songs, but this is a true statement about Jimmy

Page and the rest of the band stealing music from black American artists. I'm sure when I saw this at I guess age 21, it was the first time I've heard that claim. It's a good reminder to us all. I had forgotten this claim as well, but I could go case by case listener, but there's rock historians who have done great video essays on YouTube. Look it up, but know that this is a factually true statement Homer is making here. Before they do a second James Bond reference, I'm assuming this is the submarine car from the spy who loved me, I'm assuming this is the submarine car from The

Spy Who Loved Me. I'm gonna say. I'm no Bond expert, but it does, they play a Bond sting, so I was guessing it. Well, this is something from Bond. And also Homer reminding them, this is America. Now, no more time for fun jokes. It's time for the third famous person in the episode and I don't mean Evan Marriott. Oh, he was a sensation of 2003. It's funny hearing them goof on him on the commentary. They invited him to the premiere that year and he came. Apparently he was very nice.

He realized what his 15 minutes of fame were worth and he appreciated it. But I guess, yeah, listeners, do you remember the Joe Millionaire show? I never watched an episode I remember it as a concept and it was a clever enough now. It would just be a mr. Beast video I think you're one of those types. Yeah, and the whole premise was a man I guess it was like the bachelor but with a lie a lie based bachelor where the women went into this thinking that the man Was a millionaire and then when he chooses the woman it's revealed he's not and then she has to decide what to do from there. Yeah the extra level to the game was

that he had to convince her to get with him if he wasn't rich but she doesn't know that if she accepts they both get to split a million dollars and she then chose him and they did split a million dollars. And I was looking at what happened to this Evan Marriott guy, who has a voice in the episode by the way, it's one of his very few credits, looked up to see what he was doing apparently, he's living a kind of a private life but he did start a construction company and if you look at a recent photo of him he looks like a regular guy. So he didn't go on to do anything amazing but he just led a regular guy lifestyle like

he had been living before Joe Millionaire. Well, this is a series of jokes about going to West End theaters, which, you know, that's like the Broadway of England. And I say that to insult the English because I'm sure the West End existed before Broadway by a century. I've only been to Broadway where I saw the acclaimed play Back to the Future, the musical. But let's hear from Joe Millionaire and some other guy. I don't have a cherry orchard.

Sir Ian McAllen, you're my favorite Shakespearean actor. Thank you my dear. Please take these free tickets to my play. What play? We thespians believe it's bad luck to mention the name of this particular play out loud. You mean Macbeth? Quiet you blundering fool! You'll curse us all! What by saying Macbeth? Stop saying it! Saying what? Macbeth! Ah! Now I've said it. Oh, this is cool. Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth! Bart, stop saying Macbeth! Mom, you said Macbeth!

Mr. Macbeth, I'm really sorry. That's quite alright. You didn't know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a performance to give. Good luck! It's bad luck to say that too! Oh! Oh!

And of course, Macbeth is the story of a man who makes a deal with a gargoyle back in the 1700s and then he lives forever and teams up with Demona to take on Goliath and that, no, no, I think of the TV show Gargoyles. That's the only one I care about, honestly. Better story. I've never seen it live, but I've watched one film adaptation

and one film performance of Macbeth. I've never seen it live, but I've watched one film adaptation and one film performance of Macbeth. I have actually watched a filmed performance of Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judy Ninge as Lady Macbeth, which most British people would say are the people who, like, the greatest living performers of this play. You know, I didn't know the Joe Millionaire guy was in this episode. I didn't know his name. So when we got to the credits, I saw Evan Marriott.

I'm like, who is this? And I looked it up and I thought, oh, did he do his own voice? Because it sounds like Hank Azaria. It sounds like a voice Hank Azaria could easily do. But it is him. It's clever. I will say I like the joke that he's starring

in Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, but which the plot of that is not about a man who lies about having a cherry orchard, but that's funny that the Joe Millionaire guy is admitting he doesn't have a cherry orchard. Macbeth, there is a real good Macbeth film adaptation starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand that was filmed by one of the Coen brothers,

the one who's married to Frances McDormand. I forget which one that is, Joel, I wanna say. Was really good, and I enjoy Macbeth, the Shakespeare plays, though I feel like the superstition thing is just one of those like frou-frou actor things that they try to make themselves interesting. I think it's- Yeah. I don't know. Maybe if you performed in Macbeth, let us know. Do people still say the name outside of the context of the play? Is it still considered bad luck? Do they just call it the Scottish play, the Scottish stain, all those things?

If you want a interesting essay on the history of why it is considered a bad luck play, the Royal Shakespeare Company has their own explanation of the superstition. Apparently, one of the earliest performances that Shakespeare did was said to be cursed and like that one of the actors died beforehand and he had to play Lady Macbeth or something. And another reason it is seen as a cursed play is because apparently it is a sign that your theater is desperate to sell tickets because you can always count on it selling tickets. So if you're showing Macbeth, it means that you're in a bad way financially. This is according to the Wiki. Patrick Stewart

has this opinion that I think is true. I agree with this one. If is according to the Wiki. Patrick Stewart has this opinion that I think is true. I agree with this one. If you have played the role of the Scottish Thane, then you are allowed to say the title anytime, anywhere, which would also, Patrick Stewart has also played Macbeth as well. Both Charles Xavier and Magneto have played. Great. So you can say the name if you're not an actor or if you have played Macbeth. Yes, those are the rules. Apparently it also is because the film is about a curse and magic and all that.

So people say, oh, maybe Shakespeare, he made a deal with three witches to write this play about three witches making a deal, and that's why it's cursed, ooh. Much like J.K. Rowling, they got McKellen over the phone too, and they said that he – I think it's Selman who jokes that he's like, oh, you want a cartoon voice, do you? Yeah, he was mad about getting so much direction. I mean, I get that.

I get that, though. Tony Blair's the only one where you can hear the echoes of his room in it when you listen to it. I really enjoy, I guess in quotes, how I'm getting kind of listless with all these celebrity appearances, the celebrity gauntlet we're running through. And then there's this joke where Marge is like, well, what a great vacation. Homer's like, yes, it's been entirely uneventful. Yes.

I mean, they have met a bunch of celebrities, but nothing is happening plot wise. Yeah, that feels like they're at least joking on how they're at the end of the guest star section. And also it just feels so repetitive, like all three are laid out the same of like, they walk into a place and then Lisa goes, Hey, it's this person. This is who they are. All three of them do that. It sucks. At a certain point I wrote down, who are you the narrator? If somebody said that to Lisa that would have at least been funny. If we're rating all three of the major British guest stars I would say Ian McKellen's the funniest of them though not that hilarious he's much funnier in how he's used in extras I would say him overly explaining how they do a stage

production. Yes I mean I think he is the best actor that they've got on this as a guest star. So I did enjoy his appearance the most. Well, I mean, he's also one of like the most famous actors in the world. He better be good. You know, when my husband and I were talking about London trips, he showed me a video he found on Tik Tok of he's like, oh, we should try going here. Ian McKellen owns a pub in London that has one of his Gandalf wands in it that you can see like, wow, that's the real Gandalf one. Though it's the Gandalf wand from The

Hobbit, which honestly that degrades it for me, I think. That's a lesser wand, let's say. If it's the one he had in The Lord of the Rings, I'm much more impressed. But I don't know, we might do that one for the gram, just to get the pictures though. My husband had not watched any of the Lord of the Rings movies until I made him watch them during the pandemic. I still have to watch the third one, and I've only seen the other two once.

So I think maybe let's wait for the next pandemic, I'll have a lot of time. You've already passed the 20th anniversary of it, Bob. Hmm, well, they're always doing screenings here, and I just don't know if I want to commit to that yet. You gotta watch the theatrical first and then the extended. I would not suggest starting with the extended. Yeah, that's true.

I know those are long. This next joke, so we've deputized ourselves as joke police. I feel like this joke about the roundabout, this is in National Lampoon's European Vacation. It's one of the jokes they do, where Clark gets stuck in the roundabout. I think it National Lampoon's European Vacation. It's one of the jokes they do where Clark gets stuck in the roundabout. I think it's the exact same one. It's the Lambeth Bridge roundabout and he's like, look kids, Big Ben and

this and then he keeps saying it as they go around and around and around and it's impossible for them to get out. I think like day turns to night and they're still going in the roundabout. That's a funnier joke. I had completely forgotten that joke. That is a better joke than this. The only bit that made me laugh in this of the lengthy roundabout joke was just Homer making a joke about how America acts unilaterally, which is still true to this day. And this joke just eats up a lot of time, although I do like Julie's, and keep turning and turning. I like that. All right. Americans don't know roundabout, so I get why it's on your list of things to make fun of in London.

And Hertz rental cars being Ertz rental cars, like, it's all right, that's all right. It's fine. But yes, then we finally get to the inciting incident for Act Three. The thing that inspired Al Jean to reuse his old Golden Girl script happens at like minute 12 in this

episode which is they run into the Queen's carriage inside of Buckingham Palace which is just the Queen jokes are like I don't know it's the Queen Elizabeth's jokes they're so old to me because like Monty Python did jokes about the Queen 30 years before this episode. Yeah, and Kids in the Hall did better jokes. There's no fresh Queen material by 2003. When we did the Kids in the Hall history thing on the What a Cartoon, which is a great one, Bob did amazing work on that, guys, but we did it this year, three hours of talking about Kids in the Hall.

But I loved hearing Scott Thompson talk about his strange connection he feels to the Queen and that he did say, like, oh, I'll probably be sad when she dies because I played her so much and I do have kind of a respect for her in a way. It's funny. Yeah. When did she die? After she entered her new phase? Oh yes. I think it was just last year, I think. Yeah, not too long ago. I mean, she sat down to hang out with Paddington, but not Homer. Yeah. Well, IRL. She would only do it for the Olympics, I think. Speaking of train spotting, the director of train spotting then for the 2012 Olympics got to direct her

for being dropped off at the Olympics by James Bond. Oh wow, yeah, I guess it was two years ago. So she died at age 96 in September of 2022. Yeah, it's crazy. Though also again, I laugh later at the joke about like, I haven't had an easy life, but like again, I don't give a shit about like the Royals. I hate Americans trying to make us care about Royals.

I feel like Brits shouldn't care about Royals and Americans really shouldn't care about the British Royals. And then we learned that Royals just make terrible podcasters who won't commit. Okay, thank you, Bob. Yes. I was just looking that up. Did you know that Spotify gave them millions, and then Prince Harry didn't once record a podcast. Megan recorded 12 things that are 30 minutes and you could call a podcast. And after they welched on that deal, that Lemonada place then gave them another pile of millions to

do new podcasts there that a year in they still haven't released one. Maybe it's more profitable to run all these griffs instead of just, you know, getting your royal family paycheck every month from the government. I don't know how that works. I guess like this is technically more work for Prince Harry than he's done in his entire life, but it's like, it's such an amazing scam for them to do a podcast. Literally all they have to do is talk for the amount of time you would hear them on a podcast, which in a 30 minute podcast would probably be 20 minutes.

They don't have to do another thing and they want to do that for millions of dollars. We have more stamina than princes is what we're saying. Megan, his wife, like her I won't blame, like she was a working actress. I think she at least could produce something. The lazy one is Prince Harry. I like when they were going to settle down in Canada and then they thought, oh, this is boring. We're going to LA.

Yeah, yeah. We're all the rich sickos. You know, at least the Obama's actually produce some shit, you know? Again, they have the work ethic that a British royal wouldn't. That's how much worse the British are than us. But yes, Homer gets arrested. He crashes into the Queen. We have some okay comedy of like a fender bender, but it's with the Queen. And Homer even saying like, let the guys candle this lady.

I don't know. I feel like we just recorded my mother, the carjacker, but act one of that ends with Homer driving his car through the police station. This act two ends with Homer driving his car to the Queen. There's too much Homer car accident plot catalyst stuff happening towards the end of production season 14. I do at least like the Mike Scully. I'll let you know, Mike Scully pitched the whoop sound of the Queen of Homer acting like, oh, you're calling her the Queen, you're whipped. And then I chuckled okay at, dad, that's the Queen of England. The Queen of

what? So cut to the commercial break as Homer is being beaten up by the guards. When we come back, we have jokes about British tabloids. The one that struck me the most was the joke about the topless gal on page three of the Sun, which was a long hell tradition by the Sun newspapers, though it's also even more connected to the Simpsons because that's how Rupert Murdoch got rich on selling the Sun tabloid that also featured a topless bird on page three. Oh, it was page three. Okay. Yeah.

I forgot that you were guaranteed at least one topless woman with every issue of the sun. So this is how Rupert Murdoch got rich enough to then get even richer off of the Simpsons and apparently the sun is still around, but the nudity is not. It stopped appearing in 2015 and another casualty of the woke mind virus. I think maybe American newspapers would be in better shape if we published topless women on just one page of them. Well now nobody pays for any pornography, I think, but it probably would have helped us some. But I always felt like in my youth, it was used as an example of like, oh, here's how much better American journalism is than

British journalism that British journalism, like a newspaper there on the newsstands actually just has to sell you naked pictures to get you to buy them. There was a long tradition of nude women and not homers on page three of the side. So then we headed to a British courtroom. And did you look up these rules on wearing wigs in courtrooms? No, I didn't know if this was real or not. Apparently it was such a long-held tradition that you had to wear wigs to be a barrister

in a courtroom. It was 2007 apparently was when the law changed that you don't have to wear a wig during civil or family court or in the UK Supreme Court, but in criminal trials you still have to wear a wig if you are a barrister at all. I just watched a recent French movie and I think in that movie the judge or somebody had to wear a wig in French court. Yeah, that was that Oscar nominated movie from last year. Yeah, Anatomy of a Fall. They had to wear like the wig or, no I'm looking at pictures and I think I do see a wig in French court. Yeah, that was that Oscar nominated movie from last year.

Yeah, Anatomy of a Fall. They had to wear like the wig or, no, I'm looking at pictures and I think I do see a wig. I need to watch that movie. I remember the Chapo guys joking that how what's weirdest about the movie to Americans is just like, wait, in French court you do this? And I had similar feeling watching a few episodes of Law and Order UK because half of the episodes are in a courtroom just like in the American one, but everybody has to wear their wigs in court and all of

this. It just seemed very silly. Lots of fun robes. Though apparently, even if you don't have to wear the wig, apparently a lot of British law practitioners still are insistent on, no, no, I'm still wearing the wig. I didn't go to school for all, I'm still wearing the wig. I didn't go to school for all those years to not wear the wig. It looks fun.

But this is when Homer is on trial. Homer Simpson, you are hereby charged with damaging the royal coach and putting several dents in the royal horse. Have you please? My lord, we Americans love queens, be they homecoming or dairy. This woman, however, is an imposter! Her luggage is inscribed HRH, which means her real name must be Henrietta R. Hippo. Why did you let him be his own barrister? What difference could it make? He hit the frigging queen!

I guess it's just too much for me to ask for one vacation where we don't go to jail or to a condo sales pitch. I love these vacation episodes because you can hear Julie Kepner say, vacation. Many times. Henrietta R. Hippo is my favorite joke in the episode because it's a ridiculous line already but I do love that Marge gets the topper on it because Lisa's saying why did you let him be his own representation and Marge goes like it doesn't matter he's going to jail. Just Lisa questioning why are we looking at this set piece it's like oh here's why this comedic set piece is happening. Apparently, I learned for this that in the United Kingdom, under their laws, it's the

same as the United States. You can represent yourself in court as well, though you really shouldn't. Yeah, Henrietta Arjippo is what Homer thinks that her royal highness means on it. I just love Henrietta ArjPoe is such a silly name. Then I don't like that Homer thinks like, I'm a man. Like his delivery of that is like, that's just too much like the Austin Powers joke about these types of jokes.

Yeah, because he's telling the judge like, you understand these things, you're a grandmother. Though Homer's reaction, I guess, is an okay, like on a very manly, like it's- Phil Silvers, is that what he's doing? You're right, it's just the Phil Silvers, yeah. This is when the Queen speaks. If I might say a word.

Ooh. I haven't had an easy life. I've seen my country ravaged by war, my family torn by tragedy, and then, as I was innocently making my way to the shops to buy light bulbs, I was blindsided by this great lumbering brute. Boy, she's good. If she were a hundred years younger and I were a hundred years older, oh, oh, oh, oh.

If there is any love left in you for me, destroy him. America rules! Our beetles are way better than your precious rolling stones. That's all right. I also like that Homer, for that joke to work, Homer thinks she's 200. Yes, she would live for 20 more years.

It's incredible. Homer is taken away. Oh, and when she says, I haven't had an easy life, the little twinkle on her jewel-encrusted neck thing is even better, her neck brace. Yeah, I think that really was, when she says I didn't have an easy life, I think that actually was the plot of that movie,

The Queen, which I did see in theaters, because this was back when I wanted to watch all the Oscar-nominated best pictures. And in that movie, it's like, it tries to make you feel bad for her, just like in the King's speech. And it really grosses me out to think back on it. Oscar-nominated best pictures and in that movie it's like it tries to make you feel bad for her Just like in the King's speech and it really grosses me out to think back on it I tend to avoid royalty based media. I know it's still very popular

There's a new is the show called the Royals is that the big hit show that's happening on the crown. There's the crown. Yeah No, yeah, the Royals did I make that up? I mean, I think there's a show also called that. But The Crown is about the 90s and a history of specifically the British royal family and Princess Di and all that stuff, which definitely too, if I were to buy any conspiracy theories, I'd be like, oh yeah, they definitely killed Princess Di. And also, I mean, everything with their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein or Kevin Spacey, it's like I would believe literally anything about it.

Nothing seems impossible. Yeah, with those freaks. Yeah, yeah. Then Homer is dragged away. We then get to see more headlines, including Whacko Jacko to Blimpo Simpo, Sell Me Your Bones. That Mirror headline, what it reminded me of,

of how much me and I both dislike reading the UK press for video games and their similar Jacko and Simpo shortening things. They love these like diminutive nicknames for things, but yeah, I don't know if the Brits invented Whacko Jacko. I do love Simpo Blimpo. That is good, but remember all of the Shiggies and Rezzies? Oh yeah, Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario.

We heard a lot of Shiggies, Shigzies, I think. And Resident Evil is Rezzies. Oh yeah, Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario. We heard a lot of Shiggy's, Shiggy's. And Resident Evil is Rezzy. Rezzy. Yeah. Boo. They're having fun. They're having fun. Now like hey they're having a good time. When you have health insurance you can sit around and think of fun nicknames for things. And also they can't even like fire you unless you go through a long redundancy process. That was what I experienced the most working for a UK slash US company was, when Americans got laid off, it was instantaneous like getting the fuck out of here. When we heard about a redundancy,

they had to tell us like, well, they are closing this magazine, but it's gonna take three months to prove that they're allowed to fire these guys. Oh, that sounds a million times better than here. We suck as Americans. Yeah, we really got it backwards. I think on the commentary, does Matt Selman bring up the whole Prince Harry dresses as a Nazi thing? He does. Yes. Love him being a little stinker on the commentaries. He's successfully made you forget about that with his new like out of the things he

didn't do. He actually did write a memoir called spare because he's the backup royal because he's not gonna inherit it and all that But he is left behind his bad boy past and now he's like the victim of it, which you know His mother died at a young age I feel bad for him to a certain degree sure as much as I can for a person born into royalty, but also like he just had this shocking revelation to him of like, it turns out my family is like hateful and racist. How crazy. It is fun to see how his brother is just turning into his father in terms of appearance. I always figured that's why he's sticking around because he's like

he knows King Charles has tops five years and then boom he's gonna be king for like 20 years that's why he is sticking around for sure I get I forgot in my notes here Prince Harry didn't get just a few millions it was 20 million dollars to Spotify 20 million sorry now I'm looking at Prince William and he has Homer's haircut now he just has the Homer yeah it's true he has Homer's haircut now. He just has the Homer. Yeah, that's true. He has the horseshoe pattern baldness with just like the wisps. He's still keeping the wisps, bridging the gap.

If they were to draw him now, he'd have the Simpson hair. Oh, man, remember that coming out, the Royal Kid cartoon that came out during the pandemic. Oh, I buried that back in my memory. I remember there was like a little Stewie-style character on that show. Yeah. Oh, I buried that back in my memory. I remember there was like a little Stewie style character on that show. Yeah. Oh, God, Jesus.

Instead of thinking about that, let's think about a different American horrible moment in our history, because the deleted scene in here, the second deleted scene, is a biggie. It's 48 seconds long. So what happens is after the second round of headlines, Marge then calls a press conference to defend Homer. And this is where the last Abe scene would be.

And I really wish they'd kept in the Abe part of this because it would remind you, oh yeah, he's trying to meet up with Edwina. But the first part of this is calling in Jimmy Carter and Jesse Jackson. To help free my husband I've enlisted the aid of Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Let me just say it's good to be here in Lyme town. You fool you've ruined everything. Well don't get all up in my

face you buck-toothed canal squanderer! I'm gonna make your butt a habitat for my foot! Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y in 1944, give me a call. Oh, but if you're a guy named Philip who lent me 50 bucks, I died at the Battle of the Bulge, just like that telegram said. You know, if I didn't hear Dan Casaletta after Hank Azaria, I would think, Hank Azaria is doing a terrible Jimmy Carter. And then you hear Dan Casaletta and you're like,

oh, that was supposed to be, what's his name again? Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jesse, oh, that was Jesse, okay. I even forgot what the celebrity he was supposed to be because it sounds nothing like him. Yes. For a second I was like, no, Al Sharpton? No, no, it was Jesse Jackson.

It's a very poor Jesse Jackson impersonation and it is referencing probably the bleakest moment of his, like he calls it Limey Town, which is, yes. You know the reference, Bob. I didn't connect the two. He called it H. Slur Town. That is correct, yeah, which pretty much ended his political career as well.

That is why Jimmy Carter is saying, you ruined it all by calling this place Limey Town. That was, how long ago was that? That makes me think it is a Schwarzwald or joke, because it's a long remembered conservative joke. I mean, obviously it was pretty bad that Jesse Jackson said that I'm not defending it. It's like from the mid 80s Yeah, yeah, it is a long long time ago. Yes again a good reason to cut it But the problem with cutting it is you also do cut the Abe joke Which has plot importance as far as this episode has a plot because him having this public

Address would explain how a dweena finds him. Yes, there's no other explanation later She just is at the airport at the end That's right And I also chuckled a little bit at Abe saying, you know, I hope he gets what's coming to him Anyway, though If you're a woman named Edwina him him abandoning Homer, as Homer and the plot abandoned him in this episode. But so there you go, that's the other deleted scene.

Jeez, okay, well I'm glad it was deleted, but then the plot doesn't make any sense. So then we cut to the Tower of London, which is a tourist trap and not a functioning prison. It's not what the Tower of London is for. King Ralph, when it's referenced on the sign gag there, that is how I learned a lot of stuff about the royal family because I watched King Ralph as a child. I might have rented it as a kid. No memories of it, although Matt Selman does recount the plot where all the entire royal family and the successors are electrocuted. Yes, these are the two things I remember for King Ralph. I remember the opening where the entire royal family, a hundred people, are lined up for a family

photograph and then there is a malfunction that kills everyone. So you watch every royal die, which explains how King Ralph ends up as the inheritor. And then I also remember, I believe he Great Balls of Fire on the piano. I think that also happens in King Ralph. Otherwise, no other memories of King Ralph. But you could just have a comedy back then of a brash American moves to England like you didn't need IP. It's just like, hey, what if a big fat American was in Buckingham Palace? There, you got your movie. And it's the dad from Roseanne. Yeah, they were really pushing him as a movie star

for a little while. If I see John Goodman in anything, I'm happy. So we're at the Tower of London. Homer is being taunted by British children. Bart even gets to pull out his beloved British accent to say like a tuppence of poke, which maybe that's a Mary Poppins reference of a tuppence of bag.

Oh yeah, tuppence of jab, tuppence of bag, that makes tuppence a jab tuppence a bag that makes sense and he's living out his dream of becoming a cockney boot black and this is where Homer apologizes in a very swaltz weldery way oh I'm so sorry I should have listened to whatever it was you were saying it's partly my fault I've been nagging you so much on this trip, you couldn't know which nags to focus on. Well, Marge, if I die here, there's one thing I want you to remember. Don't buy any videotapes in England.

They won't work in our VCR. Dear God of England, please let me go. In return, I will spell the word color with a U, and I will use the metric system with every cubic milliliter of blood in my... Oh, I can't do it! It's so stupid! Dad! Oh!

We found a secret tunnel out of the tower. It was used by Sir Walter Raleigh. A secret tunnel? I don't know. Won't that get me in more trouble? Homer, you couldn't be in more trouble. They're going to put your head on a wall. used by Sir Walter Raleigh. A secret tunnel? I don't know. Won't that get me in more trouble? Homer, you couldn't be in more trouble. They're going to put your head on a pike.

They're practicing with melons. Smash it on. Don't worry it. Let the pike do the work. I do like, don't worry it. That's a good line. This is like one of the last times you could do a joke about British tapes not working

in a VHS player. It still feels a little bit late, but I'll allow it. You know, the Marge joke, it does remind me of, I have to find my least nagging tone of voice and she tries out several Homer. Homer? There it is. That's the one. This is a more hateful version of that.

I like how it just completely sells out Marge and she's like, I am the nag of the family. I like the idea of nags are distinct things like oh you weren't listening to the right nags I nagged so much you didn't know which one to focus on I mean also to Homer's like I should have listened to whatever It was you were saying yes. Well Bob have you ever encountered the British region locking on a DVD like have you ever bought British DVDs? No, I think by the time I got a DVD player I was aware of the rules because I was like way into the format and I was reading up on it ahead of time and learning about, well here's region one, here's region two and so on and so on. So I never ended up buying media that wouldn't work on my device.

I only did with a couple things. I did have a cheap region-free DVD player, which I mainly used to watch VCDs of mostly Asian films like from Japan or China. I did use it for like two DVDs It was the Alan Partridge DVDs and the Phoenix Knights DVDs because these were like the British Comedy nerd stuff I was told to watch but they never came out in the US because of like song rights They're all like full of famous songs It took a long time for Alan Partridge to get official releases in the US or spaced that was another one a friend lent me Spaced yeah spaced. Yeah, but eventually those came out in the US with except for Phoenix nights I don't think Phoenix nights has ever come out though. Now. I feel like

region locking even on a blu-ray or 4k I just bought a Robocop that I believe is the British printing of Robocop and 4k yeah yeah sounds like they don't care anymore because I don't buy a lot of physical games I accumulate Amazon points of my credit card so occasionally I'll buy a physical game from Amazon the American site and I'll get the British version of a game and I'll open the box and it'll say, what's this, PEGI 18, what is this, what did you send me? But then you pop it in and it's the same game. I still have my game press revulsion of,

if I downloaded a trailer for some work purpose, if the video game trailer starts with PEGI 18, I'd be like, download the wrong version, gotta get the one that says mature. Well this is a complaint for no one, but the one time it screwed me is I played the demo for FF 16, Final Fantasy 16. I played the American demo, then I was like, oh, I like this. I'm gonna buy the game. I bought the game. It shows up. It's the European version. So the American demo won't talk to the European version of the game.

And so I have to replay all that content and then I play through the rest of the game and I think I didn't like it that much, but maybe I'll try the DLC and then I find out that no you have the European version of the game You have to have the American version to buy the American DLC on this Sony is fucked everything up. I swear Man boy. I didn't know region locking would still be in that crummy. Yeah, I've given you a few American video games when we've met up Yeah, when I had something sent to your place. But yeah, I like that's why I like steam or two and a half hours into the podcast. I can start talking about video games now where it's like we don't care who you are. We don't care where you are.

If you buy a video game, you're going to play it. It doesn't matter. It was nice to see Nintendo. I think finally gave up the ghost on the region locking with the Switch as well. Yeah, but though, yeah, I don't buy most of my region locking is usually with Japanese media. It's fairly rare I would buy British media unless now it is a cheaper Blu-ray. Maybe based on the cover of it, maybe I did buy a pack of, when I got the disc for Rotel Dorado, I think it was in a European cheaper Blu-ray set

of the 2D DreamWorks films, I think, but it's pretty rare. So yes, Homer is given the instructions of how to escape in a pathway Walter Raleigh did, which that is not historically accurate. He was kept in the Tower of London twice, but he never escaped from it. He was given a partial exemption and then caught again and then decapitated. So he died outside of the tower.

That'll teach him. Then as Homer escapes, I laughed okay at Lisa telling him like, put out the fire first, I wish we saw more of these shining elves he saw. Yeah. Are they related to the jockeys? Can they visit them? I feel like we're establishing more supernatural characters. Homer then goes through the tunnel and remarks, boy a Krispy Kreme could really clean up down

here. A joke about the huge expansion of Krispy Kremes going on then which I definitely remember what a big deal was in the late 90s when a Krispy Kreme opened in my town. Oh yeah I don't think we got one until literally around this time. So it did feel right from the headlines, like, we're getting a Krispy Kreme and you know what, they're fine. And if you're a British person, you would even be reacting to like, whoa, really? Because in October 2003, they actually opened their first UK Krispy Kreme at the Harrods in London.

It apparently is a successful franchise in the UK as well. There are a number of Krispy Krem at the Harrods in London. It apparently is a successful franchise in the UK as well. There are a number of Krispy Kremes there now. I think I only see them at airports now, but I'm sure they're in a lot of strip malls and stuff. So yeah, it's still a going concern. Well Bob, if you shopped in one of those instead of a Tim Hortons, you'd be arrested. There are many good donut shops around. Tim Hortons is fine fine though. I will say Tim Hortons is perfectly fine It's like McDonald's for donuts and now they have pizza. I wouldn't do that. Yeah the pizza. That's crazy Yeah, they have sandwiches. They shouldn't go that far. It should just be done It's sort of like how a Dunkin Donuts has been going too far with their offerings in Orlando

I went to the world's largest McDonald's and they sell pizza there too And my husband bought it because he's like let's eat the pizza here if we have a Mccrispy here, we know it tastes like a regular chicken sandwich Let's see how their pizza is and it is a fine enough pizza. You'd be better off getting a dijourno, but it's fine It's like school cafeteria pizza pretty much. Yeah Yeah if you want to we mainly went to it because Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to we mainly went to it because it still had a Mac tonight on the wall Like an official Mac tonight was there you could see him there

And I feel like nobody talks about Mac tonight being a thing used by horrible racist people on the internet I feel like people only appreciate him for kitschy value. I think his appropriation by racist has come and gone It's definitely Pepe the Frog fully replaced him a long time ago, right? Yeah, although I feel like that's now been recontextualized as just like a funny picture I think that documentary may be helped that yeah, I think they've moved on to gripper. Oh, right Yeah, maybe we've gone beyond gripper. What could possibly be beyond gripper now? I don't want to know I don't want to know. I don't want to know. We're approaching three hours.

We're allowed to get into this territory now. A full discussion on Groyper. Yeah, so Homer leaves that tunnel and he thinks he's in a place that's fit for a duke or even an earl. And alright, gag. I laughed at that. As well, I laughed at the queen walking in with a Dagwood sandwich. That made me chuckle too.

Yeah, that's a lot of meat, a lot of bread. I think she was about to transition away from solids at this point in her life. And then she blows into her whistle which I'm glad they just call it a whistle. I feel like there's a darker term they could have used there. We know what they're going for. Homer is caught once again and this is when he makes his plea to the Queen. Boy, a Krispy Kreme would really clean up down here. Hey, this place is amazing! It's fit for a duke, or even an earl. Ah!

The Queen's in trouble, and you didn't want to give her a whistle. Ah! Please, Your Majesty. I know that I, like many other Americans, have behaved like a total buffoon. But we Americans are England's children. I know we don't call as often as we should, and we aren't as well behaved as our goody two-shoes brother Canada, who by the way has never had a girlfriend. I'm just saying. But please, find it in your jewel-encrusted heart to forgive me.

It gets away with calling Canada a closet case in this episode. Yeah, yeah. It feels like a roundabout fake Canadian girlfriend gag as well. Oh yeah, you know what? I like that more too, actually. You've never seen his girlfriend, yeah. I love a good fake Canadian girlfriend joke. When he apologizes, the look on her face

is kind of funny too, but then, then this leads to a thing that's not funny, and my belief is, I wish I could find the original script out there. It's not online at the time of this recording, in any of the places I find original scripts, but the mouth movements are off. I think there's a funnier, better person that they could be taking back with them than the one they ended up with. So I don't know if you have the clip, but this

is something I do want to talk about. Oh sure, I believe I have the clip here, but it's one of the last... you know what? No, let's just mention it here because I think I have just the end of it. They're taking Madonna back with them. Yeah. Now, here's the thing. When I was watching this on the DVD, this is the first time I've watched this episode straight on the DVD. Previously, I have watched it with the commentary. It never just purely the episode leaving it on. Obviously, it's not a good one.

It's not something I want to revisit. But I remember watching this episode when it was live and in reruns and stuff. And one thing was different. So in this version, the version on the DVD and I guess on Disney Plus as well, I'm not sure which one you watched Henry, but when Homer throws Madonna onto the conveyor belt, he says, see you in Atlanta, bitch. And when you're listening to the commentary that you can hear the audio behind them on the track and he goes, see you in Atlanta jerk.

And I remember jerk was what ran on the broadcast version because I don't think Homer has ever called a woman a bitch. Maybe it's happened since this, but if you watch the DVD version, they have the original version where Homer throws Madonna on the camera belt and says, see you in Atlanta, bitch. Wow, Bob, I'm gonna pull those together

and listeners can hear this, but that is shocking because no, I didn't. I watched the commentary on my DVD and then watched it vanilla on Disney Plus, which is where I got the clip, so I only heard it is jerk hmm yeah and I think so when they're watching the commentary they're watching the broadcast version because Al Jean says oh we originally had Homer say

something a lot meaner to Madonna here but we changed it but no they on the DVD it is preserved their original intent was to call Madonna the B word see you in Atlanta bitch see you in Atlanta, bitch. See you in Atlanta, jerk. Which is hard, it's so hard. I hate hearing Homer say that to a woman. I don't care if it's Madonna. Also, what do you got against Madonna? Who cares? But it just seems like that's just too far for Homer and then like not funny. I would definitely say not funny. Also very Peter Griffin-y. Absolutely. I mean this joke in general is very, and I said that like Tim Heidecker's dad intentionally.

Absolutely. But no, yeah, well this is a family guy joke just about like, oh that Madonna, she thinks she's British now. I mean, the Simpsons have made Madonna jokes before, but I think one, this is a data joke because when they wanna give a specific about Madonna, they're pulling a joke out of the sex book

Which is so old even then. Yeah. Yeah. It's the whole Madonna is a slut joke Which I think had really gone out of fashion by the mid to late 90s and March says, you know Proper British ladies don't pump gas naked in the sex book. She is topless when pumping gas I think March is conflating it with her hitchhiking naked photo where she's fully nude. So I would describe it as pumping gas topless. I don't know if you would use a topless photo to call somebody naked. By Marge's standards that's naked. Okay, that I agree with. Sure. I'm glad Cooler Heads prevailed but it's weird that that original line reading is just on the DVD as the default version of the episode

It's such a coarse gag and yeah that it's snuck in there that way, too It's sort of like I mean these mistakes do happen sometimes with a Ken Burns thing We found that Ken Burns scene where you can hear that Hank Azaria temp track on one of the official versions out there But you can hear the Hank Azaria temp track on one of the official versions out there, but you can hear the Ken Burns version on another. Yeah, I think I was using the DVD and it was Hank Azaria. I forget how it shook out, but yeah, he was the guest star, but in one version of the episode, it's just the temp guy.

Now this Madonna is pretending she's British thing. Like that was also just kind of a cliched thing by that point because basically everybody it was about Madonna putting on airs that's what they didn't like about it because you know everybody knew her growing up in the 80s from such a young age when she became a pop star and then in the late 90s she starts doing more stuff in England in the UK and she moves there and she also marries the extremely British film director, Guy Ritchie. Yeah.

And he puts her in movies that aren't very good. Exactly. Yeah. And she starts talking with an accent a lot more. I think Madonna does definitely still own property in the UK, but she is more, especially since divorcing Guy Ritchie many years ago. I don't think people think Madonna pretends to be British anymore. If I see Madonna jokes now, it's mainly men disgusted that she still wants to post sexy pictures into

her like late fifties, early sixties. Yeah, that's the joke I see now. Man, to know that Homer called her that makes this an even meaner joke, yes. But after we have a joke about how everybody who flies home from Heathrow has a stop in Atlanta before going to wherever they're going in America apparently. It is a Delta Hub as they said in Futurama. That's true. This is where we get a wrapping up of a plot line that we haven't seen in 10 minutes.

See you in ten minutes. were too great. Plus, as the boat pulled away from the dock, I thought you looked fat. You don't have to apologize, Abe. You yanks saved our bacon. Mmm, bacon. Oh. Abe, this is my daughter, Abby. She's 58 this month. 58?

Well, 59 years ago, your mother and I were half... Oh. Well, gotta go. See you in heaven. Mwah, mwah. Bye. Mommy, he's everything you said he was. Lady, you're gorgeous. You make Dame Edna look like a dude. Why, thank you. You're all right love The end

Depending on where you place the punctuation Jane leaves said either four or five sentences Yeah, I wonder if that changes the level of pay they gave her now I mean you're just getting scalelessly cast man that I hate that ending It really leaves a bad taste in your mouth just in that they really want you to like really guffaw at seeing British female Homer. It's so flat. It's a weak joke. It's something we'd seen before. There was the weird Homer woman in, she's singing, I am woman, hear me roar.

Oh yeah, and brother from the same planet. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, it's an image we've seen before. It's not that surprising. I don't know. There could have been a funnier joke But this is kind of a limp ending and they just spend too much time on it of like oh You're really laughing at it seeing Homer meet and that neither of them understand that they're related

The only thing I liked about it was that they had to make her 59 years old to fit with the time frame then of World War two Which makes it It's just another reminder of like oh, so Abe 20 years later had Homer as his son and I guess this woman is almost 80 now That's true. Yeah, she has to have been born in 1945 Because if you're doing the math if he left her right after shipping out for D-Day, that was in June of 44,

so then Abby would be born in 45. To again, to do the, oh, I forgive you for never seeing me again and leaving me with a child because you saved our bacon in World War II. That forgives all things. Well, this is a lingering plot thread. I mean, Jane Leaves is a working actor. She's doing a lot, not as much after Frasier, of course, but they could follow up on this. The Simpsons wiki tells me Abby has not made a canonical return to the show. Homer has a half sister just sitting out there. I do think I like groused at this a little then

too because this would have been after the much better version of this storyline done as a real two-parter on King of the Hill with the Japanese half-brother of Hank. Yes. Oh, thank you for bringing that up. It's the two-parter returning Japanese, and I think it aired the previous year. I think it was the season six season finale. Yeah. But yeah, that was the better version of this story.

They go to a country because of an old World War II based love affair and they actually do something with the story and as far as I know, they meet no celebrities. King of the Hill, not to say they never made room for celebrities but they really, when we did that a long time ago, the Willie Nelson episode, that one is weird because it's like this is a Simpson episode in King of the Hill.

It's like they didn't go to Japan and Dale's like look Hank it's Toshiro Mifune let's get his autograph. This episode leaves you with such a bad taste because one they remind you of the ape plot they didn't care about, two they have mean empty jokes about Madonna and then three they have a oh she's, she's a man, baby, Dame Edna type jokes. And then they just leave you with the British anthem or whatever and just to take out of it. It leaves a bad taste for this to be the last John Swartzwell-lier script.

And this is your last moments of it, that even an episode with funny stuff, a bad taste is left in my mouth. Yeah, I would say not like this, not like this. At least he got to go out with the movie, which I have reservations about, but I think it's better than this, but yeah, I feel like this is end of season fatigue. This is the production episode. I think 22.

This is the last production episode of 14. Yeah. That makes sense because it's Swartzwater's last one. So you can see why things aren't as interesting or creative. They are very, very tired. I could also see that they kept punting it down the production line because they're like, wait, we have to see if we can get Tony Blair.

Like it definitely sounds like they got Tony Blair real late though, much like all the celebrities in this then that's why it feels so cheap. This episode could lose the Tony Blair scene and be the same episode. It is made to be pointless and just a scene for starfucking. Yeah, nothing to do with the plot at all. Well, I hope over the last hour, sorry, three hours, we've convinced you this episode is not very good. It's a service we provide. You don't have to watch it. It's all thanks to us.

So yeah, my final thoughts are I said it as much, but boy, it stinks that this is the one he went out on and I wish there was no bad blood or anything, but I wish they would invite him back for at least one more script before he's not sick or anything, but he's 75, before he passes away. It'd be great to get one more Swartzwalder script because he's not done writing comedy. He just put out a book, I guess 18 months ago, or actually less than that, just last year. So let's get him back.

Maybe Simpson's movie 2, The return of John Swartzwalder. That's the subtitle I'm seeing. They should have freelance to script to him to leave a better taste. I just was thinking back on that New Yorker article and he has a great tip. I think for any writer that people should follow, which is they asked his writing tips and he says, writing a script is hard while rewriting is easy. So what you need to do, or what I do, is in one day I jam out a really shitty script

and then I try to rewrite it, because the hard part's done and now I can do the fun thing of rewriting it. Yes, that's such good advice. Even if you're not writing a comedy script, just overcoming the blank page and just filling it is the most important step. And then you can go back and sort of like chip away at everything and refine it.

Read Michael Sachs is landmark interview with Schwarzwald in the New Yorker. It's one of the best. And also the John Schwarzwald website actually is full of original writing by him on this episode even where he has like, yeah, just him explaining the plot of the episode. And he doesn't seem to think very well of this one Or at least if I am to believe that he wrote the text on the page for it Then even he is like, yeah, it's not what my best is the feeling I got

Thank you so much for listening to Talking Simpsons If you want to get the podcast ad free and get a bunch of bonus podcasts nearly 200 bonus full-length podcasts to date Head on over to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and sign up at the $5 level free and get a bunch of bonus podcasts, nearly 200 bonus full length podcasts to date, head on over to patreon.com slash talking Simpsons and sign up at the $5 level. And when you do, you'll get access to shows about things like Futurama, King of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman, the animated series, and the critic. And you'll also get new monthly episodes of both talking Futurama and talking of the Hill. The Patreon started in 2017.

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Episode of The Simpsons. It's not that great because we love talking about animated feature films like this month talking about animated feature films like this month we are covering our first Adam Sandler film and it's his best one uh at least of the animated variety Hotel Transylvania which is really Kendi Tartakovsky's Hotel Transylvania. The month before that we had a wonderful time talking about the truly terrible B movie that was a lot of fun too. We have now done it next month will be six years full years That we have been doing what a cartoon movie and you can hear the entire back catalog If you sign up at ten bucks a month and you get a new one each month on top of all the ad free bonus Content Bob was talking about at the five dollar level. We've covered tons of Disney films We've covered tons of Studio Ghibli,

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Actually I'm not a butler. I had already hired this cab when you got in, but the more the merrier and all that. Make with it tea, Jeeves. Yes, very good, sir.