Speaker 1: Hey everybody, this is Chuck here with a tour show announcement.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be back at Sketch Pest this year in
Speaker 1: January and lovely San Francisco. We don't have the firm
Speaker 1: date on that yet, but stay tuned for details, but
Speaker 1: we do know when we're gonna be in Seattle and Portland.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in Seattle on January in Portland the
Speaker 1: next day January. That's at the More Theater and Revolution Hall, respectively.
Speaker 1: And there is a pre sale going on today for
Speaker 1: the Seattle show. Used the code Hippie Rob. You can
Speaker 1: either go to the More Theater website or just go
Speaker 1: to h T T P colon slash slash bit dot
Speaker 1: d o slash Seattle Live and use the code hippy
Speaker 1: Rob to get your pre sale tickets. Portland goes on
Speaker 1: sale tomorrow and that would be bit dot d o
Speaker 1: slash p d X Live. Come out and see us, everybody.
Speaker 1: We're looking forward to these. Welcome to Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Know from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast again to the actual real episode one
Speaker 1: thousand of Stuff you Should Know, The one thousand episode
Speaker 1: of Stuff You Should Know. I'm Josh Clark, there's Charles W.
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, Chuck. Episode one thousand
Speaker 1: is upon us right now. You know what my mom
Speaker 1: used to always say when I was a little kid.
Speaker 1: She said, son, if you live your life right, one day,
Speaker 1: you're going to have a four digit podcast. Wow. You
Speaker 1: know she had some real predictive powers. Absolutely. Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take her to the horse track. Uh, you should
Speaker 1: do that. And we should probably just get right into
Speaker 1: this since we left everyone with the cliffhanger. Hunh yeah,
Speaker 1: I agreed, agreed, Everyone's like shut up. I almost feel
Speaker 1: like we should apologize for splitting this up. But this
Speaker 1: just there's no way to get this done in one episode. Nope,
Speaker 1: there really isn't. All right. So, uh, you may remember
Speaker 1: us from certain podcasts as Simpsons Tribute. Uh. When we
Speaker 1: left off, I believe we had told our writer's room story.
Speaker 1: We had, so that's as far as we got. No,
Speaker 1: we got to the table read part. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I mean, sorry, table table read story. So once the
Speaker 1: table read happens, then all of the um is everybody
Speaker 1: with us. I guess they've had a few days for
Speaker 1: this to stew right to discus stew. Yeah, there's another
Speaker 1: great one too. Um. So after the table read, everybody's
Speaker 1: kind of got their ideas down, the notes get sent
Speaker 1: out and it's get made that kind of thing, and
Speaker 1: then the voice actors all go do their parts. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think that they're all
Speaker 1: in the same room together acting off of one another.
Speaker 1: That is not at all the case. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: this is this is no surprise, like people know, that's
Speaker 1: how animation works. You don't all get in the big
Speaker 1: room and read to each other. Well, you do by yourself, right,
Speaker 1: And um, it's really up to the director now at
Speaker 1: this point. So once the once the show or the
Speaker 1: episods get divided up or whatever, they get handed off
Speaker 1: to directors. And there's multiple directors for the Simpsons, right,
Speaker 1: and so the director, or I should say, in this case,
Speaker 1: I think it's the producer who would be handling the
Speaker 1: audio bit at this part, and the director really is
Speaker 1: working on the animation part. But they they go off
Speaker 1: and they record the audio, the dialogue and the sound,
Speaker 1: and they handed off and at the same time there
Speaker 1: are animators who are working very closely with the director.
Speaker 1: Two bring the script to life and to do that.
Speaker 1: This is totally different from a live action show, right,
Speaker 1: because at a live action show, you write the script
Speaker 1: and then people mess with the script or whatever, and
Speaker 1: you rehearse it and everything, and then you shoot it.
Speaker 1: This is different. You have to draw everything out. There's
Speaker 1: a several extra steps for any animated show, and from
Speaker 1: what I understand, the Simpsons do far more than any
Speaker 1: other animated show on television today. It's way more are expensive,
Speaker 1: there's way more steps, but you could argue it produces
Speaker 1: a really polished finished product. Yeah, And the steps really
Speaker 1: begin as far as animation is concerned, by creating a
Speaker 1: storyboard slash story reel. Yeah, and this whole process soup
Speaker 1: to nuts can take about six to eight months from
Speaker 1: pitching the episode of having a completed episode. So they're
Speaker 1: they're constantly working this process, Like as soon as they've
Speaker 1: have recorded those lines, there's already writers working on the
Speaker 1: other episode, just like a just a constant cycle going basically. Right,
Speaker 1: There's different groups of writers, there's different groups of directors
Speaker 1: and producers and and animators, and they're they're working simultaneously
Speaker 1: on on multiple episodes. All right, So we're at the
Speaker 1: story reel and what the story reel does. It Uh,
Speaker 1: sort of just sets the basics down for each scene,
Speaker 1: how you position the characters, what kind of expressions they're making,
Speaker 1: what's going on in the background. And then this goes
Speaker 1: on to more artists who refine that storyboard and story
Speaker 1: right and so um, apparently they used to do storyboard
Speaker 1: and then story reel, which is like, Um, the storyboard
Speaker 1: is just like a bunch of skills I've seen it
Speaker 1: compared to like a picture book maybe, whereas like a
Speaker 1: story reel would have a little more movement and animation
Speaker 1: and motion to it. Apparently they've combined those now in
Speaker 1: their process. And then there's also another step called layout,
Speaker 1: and I think layout is takes the longest of all
Speaker 1: of the parts of putting an episode together, because again,
Speaker 1: if you compare it to like a live action television show,
Speaker 1: when you shoot a rehearsal, the director and the producer
Speaker 1: and the writers can go back and watch and then
Speaker 1: make notes. When you're animating a show, you have to
Speaker 1: animate that rehearsal. You have to animate the rehearsal so
Speaker 1: that the director and the head of the showrunner and
Speaker 1: and the everybody else can can get together and then
Speaker 1: make those notes. So you have to kind of animate
Speaker 1: it first, and you want to get it to a
Speaker 1: certain level of completion so that you you know what's
Speaker 1: going to come out ultimately in the end. UM, but
Speaker 1: you you stop short of actually animating the entire thing
Speaker 1: because apparently the Simpsons shoot their UM show in like
Speaker 1: twenty four frames per second, and what they're doing, say
Speaker 1: as far as layout, which is about the most finished
Speaker 1: product they're going to do in the house, UM is
Speaker 1: maybe a third of that or a quarter of that.
Speaker 1: So that means somebody has to go and fill it in.
Speaker 1: And once they've got everything set and we'll talk more
Speaker 1: about that, they send it overseas. Yeah, and uh with
Speaker 1: this layout, Like we talked earlier about the style guide
Speaker 1: in the show Bible, and this is where that really
Speaker 1: comes into play because you have different people drawing and
Speaker 1: everyone has their own style unto themselves, but you have
Speaker 1: to remain true to the show, so that show Bible
Speaker 1: and style guide are really sort of the rules of
Speaker 1: the show that everyone can refer to you and say
Speaker 1: no when Homer yells literally like his lips, do this exactly,
Speaker 1: Like that's how that's how it works. And we can't
Speaker 1: deviate from that. It's got to be consistent, right, And um,
Speaker 1: I saw a couple of style guides. And for example,
Speaker 1: if you look closely, I never noticed this, but the
Speaker 1: nose always overlaps the eye. I has never drawn over
Speaker 1: the nose. Um. Their teeth are never square or pointy.
Speaker 1: They're always slightly rounded, but not two round. So you'll
Speaker 1: see like examples of these things, and you'll see examples
Speaker 1: of yes and no kind of thing. Um. And here's
Speaker 1: a bit of trivia for you, especially if you're an
Speaker 1: animation nerd. Bart's body minus his shoes, but from his
Speaker 1: shoes up is two heads high, so his body and
Speaker 1: his head are the same size. Interesting, And then you
Speaker 1: have his shoes, and if you put all those three
Speaker 1: things together you have a correctly proportioned Bart. That's pretty good, alright.
Speaker 1: So once you have the layout done, you have moved
Speaker 1: on to some thing called an exposure sheet. This is
Speaker 1: a pretty complicated chart basically that really breaks down in
Speaker 1: super super precise detail, each frame and everything in the
Speaker 1: entire episode. So so think about this, Chuck, The Simpsons
Speaker 1: shoots twenty four frames per second, and let's say that
Speaker 1: it's the average episode is twenty two minutes of actual content, right,
Speaker 1: So if you'll allow me to pull out my Texas
Speaker 1: instrument pocket calculator as I am doing right now, we're
Speaker 1: gonna do twenty four times sixty times twenty two equals
Speaker 1: thirty one thousand, six hundred and eighty frames and say
Speaker 1: a twenty two minute episode. Okay, amazing, amazing indeed, So
Speaker 1: get this man with those exposure sheets you were just mentioning.
Speaker 1: Every single one of those thirty one thousand, six d
Speaker 1: eighty frames is accounted for. Everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: every single one of those frames is down and accounted for,
Speaker 1: like not not just like the movements of Homer's eyes
Speaker 1: or what Homer's doing, but also what the background characters
Speaker 1: are doing, how how whispy um Patty or Selma's cigarette
Speaker 1: smoke is um. And you do this for every single character,
Speaker 1: whether foreground or background, in every single scene, in every
Speaker 1: every single frame of every single episode for thirty years.
Speaker 1: Isn't that insane? Yeah, they break down words into phonems
Speaker 1: so they can so everything just matches up in times
Speaker 1: outright for not only to be realistic but for comedy,
Speaker 1: right exactly, And the whole reason they're doing. This is
Speaker 1: for what I said earlier that the people who actually
Speaker 1: do the animation, the people who draw those thirty one thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred and sixty frames for every episode, they're located
Speaker 1: overseas UM. I think with the Simpsons in particular, they
Speaker 1: work with a Calm, which is a South Korean company UM,
Speaker 1: and they do the actual animation. Most animation from here
Speaker 1: in the States has actually done overseas in Asia for
Speaker 1: the most part, the final animation, right, Uh, the ones
Speaker 1: who who the people who do the actual like animation
Speaker 1: of every single frame. So up to the point here
Speaker 1: in the United States in house, they've gotten it pretty close.
Speaker 1: But again they've just maybe animated a quarter or a
Speaker 1: sixth of the actual frames that are going to be
Speaker 1: animated for the episode. And they've gotten it as far
Speaker 1: as they have because they're trying to work out the acting,
Speaker 1: the comedic timing, making sure that all the facial expressions
Speaker 1: are right and the movements are right. But then the
Speaker 1: people actually go through and animate those frames based on
Speaker 1: that frame by frame bible for every single episode, and
Speaker 1: it it serves as a blueprint for both the animators
Speaker 1: and for the Simpsons creators because they can point to
Speaker 1: and be like, no, we didn't want this, you guys
Speaker 1: need to reanimate that. Supposedly, and this is like the
Speaker 1: most mind bending, lee detailed process anyone's ever done. Supposedly
Speaker 1: the Simpsons kept it up longer than anybody, but even
Speaker 1: they have moved to almost all digital process now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they use software that has streamlined some of
Speaker 1: this um but it's not like they plug things into
Speaker 1: a computer and it animates things, you know, right, No, no,
Speaker 1: they're they're just using it to say, like, rather than
Speaker 1: using a film stock to to slowly capture each phoneme
Speaker 1: frame by frame. Now it's all digitized, like they can
Speaker 1: upload the audio, upload the layout and put them together
Speaker 1: in time. It like that, which is I'm sure the
Speaker 1: productions assistance lives are so much better now. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: of course once it's animated, it comes back from ACoM
Speaker 1: in South Korea, and then it's sent to the editor
Speaker 1: and producers. They're gonna add all the music that of course,
Speaker 1: the iconic score from Danny Elfman, and it's edited all
Speaker 1: together and you slap it on the television, slap it
Speaker 1: on the behind. Wow, I know. And each one of
Speaker 1: those takes about six months right to get an episode
Speaker 1: done and again, like I've read south Park can can
Speaker 1: be done in a week. Well, yeah, that's how they
Speaker 1: there's that great documentary about south Park. How but they
Speaker 1: put together a show and um, they do that so
Speaker 1: they can stay super super current, which is how that
Speaker 1: show works. You know. Yeah, for sure, different beast and
Speaker 1: I mean it looks good too, especially once they made
Speaker 1: their mark on this is what this style of animation
Speaker 1: looks like. Now it's just like you're You're totally absorbed
Speaker 1: into their world the moment you see it, you know.
Speaker 1: All Right, So let's talk a little bit about Springfield. Um,
Speaker 1: the beloved Springfield, USA, where the show is set. It
Speaker 1: has been a a running joke over the years. Graining
Speaker 1: picked Ringfield because there are many many springfields in the
Speaker 1: country here in the United States, and one of the
Speaker 1: running jokes is that they have never named where exactly
Speaker 1: what state Springfield is in and shall not no, although
Speaker 1: supposedly in I don't know, the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: he gave an interview and said that he named it
Speaker 1: after Springfield, Oregon because he's apparently from Portland's and so
Speaker 1: everybody's like, oh, that's where Springfield is. And I think
Speaker 1: the next episode they released Bart's chalkboard gag said Springfield
Speaker 1: is in any state that but yours, not yeah, but yours. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I think he might have named it
Speaker 1: because a lot of the streets in Portland or in
Speaker 1: The Simpsons as well, but his characters. But I don't
Speaker 1: think he was saying and this is why they did that.
Speaker 1: I don't think he was saying, hey, it's an Oregon.
Speaker 1: That's just where he got the name originally, right. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: the reason he chose that name was just to make
Speaker 1: it as generic as possible and as relatable as possible
Speaker 1: to any you know, small town. And the grab stir
Speaker 1: makes a pretty good point, Um that simply that Springfield
Speaker 1: is you could mistake it for any small town. Everybody
Speaker 1: knows everybody else's name, everybody knows everyone else's business. Um,
Speaker 1: it's just a small town. But then, just to keep
Speaker 1: the plot going, and this is one of the great
Speaker 1: benefits of making it an animated show, it also has
Speaker 1: a gorge. It has not one, but two mountains. It
Speaker 1: has like world class museums, an airport, Yeah, volcano has
Speaker 1: a squid port, like the the the waterside um area
Speaker 1: that they redeveloped. Um has malls, it has a casino,
Speaker 1: It's got like all this stuff. Um. And so it's
Speaker 1: a relatable small town. But at the same time, they
Speaker 1: just played with it and made it as big as
Speaker 1: they want it to be too. Uh. Yeah. And of course,
Speaker 1: aside from all the big, huge things, the Simpsons has
Speaker 1: got a lot of comedy over the years from the
Speaker 1: names of the businesses. Um. A few of my favorites. Uh.
Speaker 1: There was a pastry shop called the French Confection. Uh.
Speaker 1: There was a there are a museums Louve American Style.
Speaker 1: Did you ever watch that show Love American Style? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was so great. Um. The soup kitchen was called
Speaker 1: Helter Shelter. Uh. And there was a seafood restaurant called
Speaker 1: the Frying Dutchmen. And those are just a few. That's
Speaker 1: like sort of a long running gag is to get
Speaker 1: good pun names out of the businesses. So there um.
Speaker 1: In addition to Matt Graining saying that it was that
Speaker 1: he chose or he named it after Springfield, Oregon, there's
Speaker 1: an episode that um certain purists point to is the
Speaker 1: tipping point where the Simpsons went from good to bad
Speaker 1: it was the end of season ten, and the episode
Speaker 1: was like a behind the Laughter or behind the Music parody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was called behind the Laughter, remember that one? And
Speaker 1: in it they at the very end the narrator references
Speaker 1: them as a north northern Kentucky family but they knew
Speaker 1: that they yeah, And I was like, well, they just
Speaker 1: said it. But then apparently for reruns they had the
Speaker 1: narrator also recorded different a couple of other um states,
Speaker 1: so it's just totally up in the air. One of
Speaker 1: them was apparently um Lena I like Lanai Hawaii Springfield
Speaker 1: Lani Hawaii apparently is a place, but it's it's not,
Speaker 1: of course. And then just to kind of they took
Speaker 1: that fact that that they never identified Springfield and they
Speaker 1: managed to use that as like a running gag as well. Right,
Speaker 1: So the referential humor that the show is is deeply
Speaker 1: involved in also was self referential too, and that like
Speaker 1: anytime somebody went to point to a map where Springfield was,
Speaker 1: somebody would get in front of the camera and between
Speaker 1: you and the camera, um or would suddenly talk over
Speaker 1: somebody who was about to say what state Springfield was in.
Speaker 1: So it just became a kind of an in joke
Speaker 1: for people who watched The Simpsons as well. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think Ned even at one point said the state
Speaker 1: borders Kentucky, Maine, Nevada in Ohio. So no one knows
Speaker 1: where springfields. But I think that bart chalkboard thing was.
Speaker 1: It was the closest we'll ever get to it. And
Speaker 1: who wants why would why would you want to know
Speaker 1: where it is? You know what? I know. I get
Speaker 1: that certain nerds might be like, I want to solve this,
Speaker 1: but to me, that's just part of the charm of
Speaker 1: the show, you know, agreed. So um, I want to
Speaker 1: say something. I mentioned museums, and you mentioned the louve
Speaker 1: American style. I wonder if that was the one. But
Speaker 1: there was one episode where the Simpsons went to a
Speaker 1: museum and they took the audio tour, and the audio
Speaker 1: tour was hosted by Melanie Griffith. But rather than like
Speaker 1: talk about the paintings, the whole thing consisted of her going,
Speaker 1: oh this one's nice. Look at this one. Oh this
Speaker 1: painting is nice. Let's see it's in the next room. Oh,
Speaker 1: this room is nice. Like that was the audio tour.
Speaker 1: That's great. It was great. Man. So aside from the
Speaker 1: multiple universities, the sports teams and stadiums, the International Airport,
Speaker 1: the tire fire, the mystery spot, and all the huge
Speaker 1: landmarks in this small town you're gonna see. The Simpsons
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time at places like Quickie Mark uh,
Speaker 1: most tavern, the power plant, power plant where Homer works,
Speaker 1: Springfield Elementary where Barton leasas been going to school for
Speaker 1: thirty years, which is I think that he decided early
Speaker 1: on he didn't want to age the characters at all.
Speaker 1: It was a good choice, yeah, because you can go
Speaker 1: on forever. Bad news for Maggie because she doesn't have
Speaker 1: many lines. Yeah, that's true. And I think Matt Greening
Speaker 1: does the pacifiers suck too? Yeah? Uh. And of course
Speaker 1: next door to Homer lives one Ned Flanders with his family.
Speaker 1: And here's another little tidbit that I did not know.
Speaker 1: I don't know how it got past me, but apparently
Speaker 1: Ned Flanders is sixty years old. Yeah, he's he's cut
Speaker 1: his youthful looks with a healthy dose of vitamin Church. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It always cracks me up that Ned just looks like
Speaker 1: a normal guy until, like like in the skiing episode
Speaker 1: where they were skiing when he's all buff and his
Speaker 1: buns are all tight, and or in the street car
Speaker 1: named Marge episode, he has to take his his shirt
Speaker 1: off because he's playing Stanley Kawalski, I think, and he's
Speaker 1: like ripped. It's so funny. Yeah, all right, well, let's
Speaker 1: take a break here. We're gonna come back and talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about the odd episode numbering code right
Speaker 1: after this. Alright, So if you're a Simpsons fan, you
Speaker 1: might say, what about season seven episode three didn't for us?
Speaker 1: That is good enough for us, But you'd be mistaken
Speaker 1: because they have a very uh what's the word, not obscure,
Speaker 1: but just very convoluted way of numbering their episodes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they do it. So remember they're working on multiple episodes
Speaker 1: at once, and not all of those episodes make it
Speaker 1: into the same season. So the way that they keep
Speaker 1: track of their episodes is by batch number. And I
Speaker 1: didn't see anywhere how many can be in a batch,
Speaker 1: did you? Uh No, But let's say let's say between
Speaker 1: six and a baker's dozen't okay, that's my guest stab
Speaker 1: in the dark, and maybe magraining will right into correct
Speaker 1: us one way or another, I hope. So, but um,
Speaker 1: the batch number and letter is the first two digits
Speaker 1: or um whatever you want to call them, number or
Speaker 1: number and letter. Sorry, right, that's what I was having
Speaker 1: problems with. So like, for example, season four, episode six,
Speaker 1: that would be UM nine F zero three, and the
Speaker 1: zero three is the number that the episode had in
Speaker 1: the batch. So it really has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: release data where it fell in the season. It had
Speaker 1: to do with when it was assigned an inner production. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think what's important is that they get it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then they even switched later in the series two. Uh,
Speaker 1: letter codes only, isn't that right? Uh? They changed the
Speaker 1: UM well, now not letter codes only, because season ten,
Speaker 1: episode thirteen would be A A B F zero nine, right,
Speaker 1: so they changed the batch code to letters. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: and god knows what A A B F O nine sanswer.
Speaker 1: But but even Chuck, like, as far as I'm concerned, UM,
Speaker 1: if you are referencing an episode and you say something
Speaker 1: like season four, episode six, I don't know what episode
Speaker 1: that is, Um, I don't even go by title. I
Speaker 1: just go by the one about this well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean let's say I go by title when it's obvious,
Speaker 1: like march versus the monorail, UM but yeah, I usually
Speaker 1: will go by yeah, the one where you know Homer
Speaker 1: did blank right exactly, That's what Friends did. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was actually the title though, right. Yeah. So Season four,
Speaker 1: episode six, by the way, was the one about the
Speaker 1: Itchy and Scratchy movie, which Bart is banned from seeing
Speaker 1: but ends up becoming a Supreme Court justice because Homer
Speaker 1: took the stand and punished him. Um. So, they have
Speaker 1: many staples on the show that they've done over the years.
Speaker 1: We mentioned the blackboard gag at the beginning of the intro, uh,
Speaker 1: and the intro itself is has got some long running
Speaker 1: gags besides Bart writing different messages on the chalkboard during
Speaker 1: the tension hall over and over the couch gag when
Speaker 1: the family runs in finally all together into the living
Speaker 1: room to get on the couch. It's always something different
Speaker 1: and special and funny, and apparently some of them are
Speaker 1: like way longer than others. Um, they will add seconds
Speaker 1: onto it if like an episode came in shorter than
Speaker 1: they meant it too. Yeah, it's kind of nice to
Speaker 1: have that leeway to play with, I think, and they've
Speaker 1: actually made pretty good hey by outsourcing that too. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: to like guest animators like Guiarmo del Toro Banks he
Speaker 1: did one. Um, so they're actually doing those. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was sort of an homage. No, No, they're
Speaker 1: they're either actually animating them or coming up with the
Speaker 1: idea or directing them. Um. Don Hertzfeld did one. Bill
Speaker 1: Plimpton did one. John Krick Falsey, I've never known how
Speaker 1: to say his name, but the guy who did Running Stimpy,
Speaker 1: he did one. I just can't imagine what an honor
Speaker 1: it would be to do the couch gag. But they've
Speaker 1: come up with some really cool stuff. Um, Matt Graining,
Speaker 1: can we do a couch gag? What if he's been
Speaker 1: listening since he wrote that down on his script, man,
Speaker 1: that would be something else. I would guess he would
Speaker 1: be like, I'm not even listening to this one for
Speaker 1: these two? Yeah? Or what if you listen to the
Speaker 1: first and not in the second? That would be the
Speaker 1: biggest dagger, Like that can't go on. Um So, Maggie
Speaker 1: when she gets scanned the grocery store in the beginning sequence,
Speaker 1: originally in nine, she got scanned is forty seven dollars
Speaker 1: and sixty three cents, because apparently that was the price
Speaker 1: the estimated price of raising a baby for a month
Speaker 1: and then it is and then in two thousand nine
Speaker 1: that was changed out. The grocery start with a number
Speaker 1: of two and then Maggie when she has swiped doubles
Speaker 1: at fifty two. And I'm not sure the significance in
Speaker 1: that not either, but if it someone knows, Again, Matt Greening,
Speaker 1: let us know what else Tree House of Horror very
Speaker 1: classic was that in the first season. Did they started
Speaker 1: in the first season? Do you know? I think so?
Speaker 1: I think so too. But just like what a great
Speaker 1: tradition to just throw like they threw continuite out the window,
Speaker 1: characters could be killed off the routinely would um spoof
Speaker 1: like great sci fi and horror movies. It was just
Speaker 1: fun to watch because it didn't count, It didn't have
Speaker 1: anything to do with anything. It was just like taking
Speaker 1: the the cartoon aspect of the show and like just
Speaker 1: flushing it out in the grand tradition of cartoons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and those are those are always some of my favorite
Speaker 1: episodes over time. For the Halloween episodes. Uh many many
Speaker 1: catchphrases over the years have become part of just part
Speaker 1: of American culture, part of the lexicon. From dough from Homer, right,
Speaker 1: which is translated in different languages. Yeah, in French it's
Speaker 1: toe with the T, and then in Spanish it's ouch.
Speaker 1: Did you know that? I did not know that, which, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's weird because it's not a physical whole thing, but
Speaker 1: it is sort of an ouch, an emotional ouch. Well,
Speaker 1: did you know that? It's in the Oxford English Dictionary?
Speaker 1: And what's the definition? Did you Did you find it
Speaker 1: um somewhere? I did see it, but I don't remember.
Speaker 1: Do you have it? I do? I found it all right.
Speaker 1: It is expressing frustration at the realization that things have
Speaker 1: turned out badly or not as planned, or that one
Speaker 1: has said something foolish. Pretty good definition of dough. I
Speaker 1: think everyone has had a friend over the years that
Speaker 1: said accident a little too much. Yeah. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: of course Comic book Man, Uh, worst episode ever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one kind of a classic one. That's a good um,
Speaker 1: good starting point to talk about their um some more
Speaker 1: self self referential humor. So that was about I don't
Speaker 1: remember what episode that was or what season it was,
Speaker 1: but that was from the Itchy and Scratching and Pucci episode, right,
Speaker 1: So at the time people were like kind of hating
Speaker 1: on the Simpsons. It was becoming trendy too to talk
Speaker 1: about how it jumped the shark, although I don't think
Speaker 1: that was a term yet. And um, the Simpsons made
Speaker 1: fun of it by creating this this episode where Itchy
Speaker 1: and Scratchy had become hip or unhip and and old,
Speaker 1: and so they to rev stuff up. They brought him Pucci,
Speaker 1: the talking dog, who was an extreme like skateboarding guitar
Speaker 1: playing ninja I think, and um just completely threw off
Speaker 1: like the whole Itchy and Scratchy show. And that's where
Speaker 1: a comic book guy says worst episode ever. And he's
Speaker 1: talking about the Itchy and Scratchy and Pucci episode and
Speaker 1: barts like, well, you know, um, you know, where do
Speaker 1: you get off saying that? And he's like, well, as
Speaker 1: as my as a loyal fan, I feel like they
Speaker 1: owe me. He's like, what do you mean they owe you?
Speaker 1: They've given you hundreds of hours of free entertainment, if anything,
Speaker 1: you owe that, and he goes the worst episode ever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that's a subtle dig from Simpson's writers
Speaker 1: to Simpsons nerds for sure. And then also in the
Speaker 1: same so there's another great one too, if I may, um,
Speaker 1: like the super super Nerds. I don't remember the guy's name,
Speaker 1: but just he's like got the messed up hair and
Speaker 1: he's wearing like a green cardigan all the time in glasses.
Speaker 1: But there's an itchy and scratchy like Q and A
Speaker 1: or something like that, and the guy asked the question,
Speaker 1: he says, um, he goes so an episode whatever whatever?
Speaker 1: Um like itchy plays scratchy skeleton like a xylophone, and
Speaker 1: they show him hitting the same rib twice in secession,
Speaker 1: but it plays two distinct notes. I hope somebody got
Speaker 1: fired for that screw up, you know. So they were
Speaker 1: very much aware of the the growing um viciousness of
Speaker 1: their own fans. That is just totally common play ace now,
Speaker 1: but at the time it was just developing, because that
Speaker 1: was about the time the Internet was really developing, and
Speaker 1: of course everybody knows the Internet brings out the absolute
Speaker 1: worst in humanity. Yeah. Uh, here's another cool thing that's
Speaker 1: happened over the years is the Simpsons has had an
Speaker 1: in Time magazine wrote this great article where they kind
Speaker 1: of broke it down thirteen times the Simpsons actually predicted
Speaker 1: the future. Um, it's it's not quite on the level
Speaker 1: of me wanting to punch Jared from Subway for Sharknado.
Speaker 1: I know, man, you do have a pretty good track record,
Speaker 1: but it is pretty interesting over the years some of
Speaker 1: the things that The Simpsons has parodied that ended up
Speaker 1: happening in real life. So thanks to Time Magazine, we're
Speaker 1: going to go over some of these, maybe not all thirteen, no,
Speaker 1: just the good ones. One of the best. It's very
Speaker 1: sad and tragic. But they actually did predict a full
Speaker 1: ten years earlier. Uh, Siegfried and Roy's tiger attack. Did
Speaker 1: they correctly predict which one would be attacked? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure because Roy was the one who was
Speaker 1: attacked in real life, And I want to say, uh,
Speaker 1: I think Siegfrey got attacked in the cartoons. I really,
Speaker 1: I didn't know if it was one or both. I
Speaker 1: can't remember. Oh maybe it was both. But that was
Speaker 1: and it actually really did happen. In two thousand three
Speaker 1: and season five, episode ten U springfield S Being a
Speaker 1: Dollar Sign or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Speaker 1: Love legalized gambling so great. That was the one where
Speaker 1: Robert Cooley hits Millhouse with this microphone's right and That title,
Speaker 1: of course, is also a reference to uh, doctor Strangelove. Right,
Speaker 1: all right, what else we got? Um? Let's see voting
Speaker 1: machine errors? Yeah, counting the wrong votes? Um. I don't
Speaker 1: remember what the episode was, but um, say episode four
Speaker 1: Treehouse of Horror? Oh was it that one? So Homer
Speaker 1: was trying to vote for I guess McCain at first,
Speaker 1: and then ends up it ends up being switched to Obama. No,
Speaker 1: he tries to vote for Obama and he does it
Speaker 1: a few times and it gets switched back to McCain. Gotcha,
Speaker 1: which actually happened in real life in that very election,
Speaker 1: that's right, in two thousand twelve. That was that famous
Speaker 1: video footage of uh in Pennsylvania people voting for Obama
Speaker 1: at switching it to Mitt Romney. Oh, that's right. So
Speaker 1: the next election, Um? What else? The auto correct one
Speaker 1: was kind of funny Episode eight of season six, Lisa
Speaker 1: on Ice. Lisa was um Or Curny actually during a
Speaker 1: school assembly, Um asked Dolph, this fellow bully, to take
Speaker 1: a memo to beat up Martin on his Newton. Remember
Speaker 1: the Newton apples? Little? Uh? I guess the original p
Speaker 1: d A from Apple it was, but it had Um,
Speaker 1: it had I guess writing the text function that didn't
Speaker 1: work that well. Yeah, so it's he said to take
Speaker 1: a memo beat up Martin and it changed it to
Speaker 1: eat up Martha, which is pretty funny. And everyone suffers
Speaker 1: through that today with it, Well, it's get real. It's
Speaker 1: not suffering, but gets annoyed by it feels like suffering.
Speaker 1: I got another one, President Trump. Yeah. So there's this
Speaker 1: clip apparently of Trump announcing his candidacy that they made
Speaker 1: after he actually had announced it. But people sent it
Speaker 1: around and said it just became an urban legend that
Speaker 1: they had made this before he actually announced his campaign.
Speaker 1: That's just false. But there's another earlier episode from My
Speaker 1: Belief two thousand, if I'm not mistaken, where it shows
Speaker 1: the future and Lisa is president and she um just
Speaker 1: references President Trump. She says, we we inherited a pretty
Speaker 1: big debt debt crunch from President Trump, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of work ahead of us. UM, And
Speaker 1: I guess al Jean or somebody who was interviewed said
Speaker 1: that they just they asked themselves like, what would what
Speaker 1: would represent the lowest point for America? UM, that that
Speaker 1: we could possibly hit in the future, and they said
Speaker 1: to themselves, well, President Trump, So now now we've hit, um,
Speaker 1: apparently the lowest point as far as the Simpsons are concerned. Uh,
Speaker 1: last one, I'm gonna pick America's Ebola outbreak. And this
Speaker 1: one I'm picking because it was a seventeen years early. Uh.
Speaker 1: In season nine, episode three, Lisa's sacks, Marge offers to
Speaker 1: read Bart but he was depressed. She offers to read
Speaker 1: him a book called Curious George and the Ebola Virus, which, um,
Speaker 1: I mean, no one knew at all what Ebola was.
Speaker 1: That's pretty pretty interesting. Not bad Simpsons, Yeah, the other ones.
Speaker 1: All right, check out that Time magazine article to uh
Speaker 1: if you want the full list. Um, So what's up next, Chuck?
Speaker 1: Shall we talk about the successive Simpsons the cultural impact?
Speaker 1: I feel we can take our final break now, Man,
Speaker 1: what a journey. It has been a heck of a journey, buddy,
Speaker 1: all right, and we'll come back and finish up with
Speaker 1: a lot more Easter eggs what some critics have said
Speaker 1: over the years, and and kind of just a lovely summation. Alright, Chuck,
Speaker 1: So you promised Easter eggs. People want Easter eggs. I
Speaker 1: want Easter eggs. Let's talk Easter eggs. Yeah, this was
Speaker 1: compiled in m E put together a list of fifty
Speaker 1: Easter eggs, and we've covered a lot of them, and
Speaker 1: so we'll go over some of the faves here that remain.
Speaker 1: I did not know this, but Bart obviously he's very
Speaker 1: famous for his prank phone calls to most tavern, one
Speaker 1: of the great great running bits over the years. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the number he dials is seven six four eight
Speaker 1: four three seven seven, which is funny in itself because
Speaker 1: it's got one extra digit, but that actually smells out,
Speaker 1: spells out, smithers perfect. Pretty good. Um, I got one.
Speaker 1: Everybody on the show has four fingers for four digits
Speaker 1: on their hand, that's right. And there's only been one
Speaker 1: person on the entire show who had five, and that
Speaker 1: was God. When I think heretic Homer episode where Homer
Speaker 1: decides he doesn't want to go to church anymore, that's
Speaker 1: a good one too. Pretty good, Speaking of don't, Originally
Speaker 1: that was just written in the script and continues to
Speaker 1: be written in the script unless they may actually write
Speaker 1: it as a line now. But originally it was in
Speaker 1: the script as annoying, annoyed grunt, and that's what Dan
Speaker 1: Castelenetta came up with, She's not bad and he apparently
Speaker 1: he based it on a recurring character from the old
Speaker 1: Laurel and Hardy series. Yeah, dude, that is an arcane
Speaker 1: reference right there. Not bad um. Like we said, Doe
Speaker 1: made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, so too did me. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they didn't make up man, but apparently they kind
Speaker 1: of brought it back into popular usage and it was
Speaker 1: kind of big starting in the nineties. Now it's just
Speaker 1: a timeless classic basically. But it was added in two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen to the O E ED and the
Speaker 1: definition is expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm. Pretty succinct.
Speaker 1: I think Al Jean said something about it being like
Speaker 1: one of the funniest words in the English language. I
Speaker 1: think he's right. It really if you time it out right,
Speaker 1: a good man is really pretty great. Yeah, because a
Speaker 1: lot of times it's used to very like not sarcastically,
Speaker 1: but what like if something is really great and then
Speaker 1: you say it's math, it just shuts it down automatically. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is pretty great. Here's on Principal Skinner his prisoner
Speaker 1: uniform in Vietnam was two four six one uh, and
Speaker 1: he shared that prisoner number with uh Jean Valjean from
Speaker 1: Layman's Rob from Hank Jennings and Twin Peaks who no
Speaker 1: doubt it got it from John Valjean and then side
Speaker 1: show Bob also has that very same prisoner number. So
Speaker 1: it's a good prisoner number. Bob a k A. Robert
Speaker 1: to Williger right, Robert Underdunck to Williger's this bull name, Yeah,
Speaker 1: such a great name. Yeah, Um, I've got another one.
Speaker 1: I did not know this. I hadn't even heard this,
Speaker 1: but the do the Bartman single that actually topped the
Speaker 1: charts in the UK and I think the US two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not a fan, so you had, um you had remember
Speaker 1: that where Auto is listening to the Simpsons Calypso record
Speaker 1: yea so um. Apparently Michael Jackson actually produced that song.
Speaker 1: Oh really that track? Yeah. He was a guest on
Speaker 1: the show too, he was. He was an uncredited guest.
Speaker 1: He played a large white um maybe construction worker I
Speaker 1: think who Homer met at a mental hospital who thought
Speaker 1: he was Michael Jackson and had Michael Jackson's voice, but
Speaker 1: they never credited Michael Jackson on the episode. Interesting. Here's
Speaker 1: one of my favorites, Millhouse Van Howton. His middle name
Speaker 1: is Mussolini. Yeah. I think one of the greatest Millhouse
Speaker 1: gags of all time was um when Bart had his
Speaker 1: leg broken and they got a swimming pool and they
Speaker 1: basically did rear window remember that one? Oh yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And Millhouse is signing Bart's cast and he's like, I
Speaker 1: gotta go Bart, and he Bart looks down at his
Speaker 1: cast and says Millpool because he wants to go to
Speaker 1: play in the pool rather than hang out with Bart.
Speaker 1: It's one of those ones you just gotta see it.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's funnier scene than explained. And actually,
Speaker 1: isn't that the premise that it's just funnier to just
Speaker 1: go watch this stuff? I ho everybody knows that. We
Speaker 1: know that, yes, absolutely, uh please go watch the stuff
Speaker 1: if you haven't already died back in and if you have.
Speaker 1: Um here's another one Springfield Hill Billy Cletus which we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. Cleetas is like John Yokel and his wife
Speaker 1: brand Dean forty four kids. Some of their names these
Speaker 1: are great. One of his name is Incest. One of
Speaker 1: them's name is Crystal, meth uh spelled like the name Crystal.
Speaker 1: Uh normal head Joe. I think that's probably the best
Speaker 1: one of all. Normal head Joe is good. My favorite
Speaker 1: one is uh Mary WrestleMania. The normal head Joe is
Speaker 1: great because it's it references the idea that the other
Speaker 1: kids heads aren't normal, or that that there's another one
Speaker 1: named Joe who doesn't have a normal heads, you know,
Speaker 1: and that actually brings to mind, if I may, another
Speaker 1: joke of that I think is possible. Lee the best
Speaker 1: joke ever said on The Simpsons Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1: I don't remember what episode it was, but Homer is
Speaker 1: reminiscing about something that happened in his past, in his life,
Speaker 1: and he like he got in trouble or something with
Speaker 1: some bootleggers, but luckily his friend Fawns he came and
Speaker 1: beat them up and saved the day. And Marge goes,
Speaker 1: that was happy days and Homer says, no, they weren't
Speaker 1: all happy days, Marge, And it says a lot so
Speaker 1: number one. Homer is thinking that in a Happy Days
Speaker 1: episode is an actual memory from his life. That's funny enough,
Speaker 1: but there's also like this other nuanced joke to where
Speaker 1: he thinks that either Marge's grasp on grammars so bad
Speaker 1: that those were Happy Days comes out that was Happy Days,
Speaker 1: or his own grasp on grammar is that bad that
Speaker 1: he thought that was correct and he fails to remember
Speaker 1: the show Happy Days right exactly. So there's like five
Speaker 1: different things like writhing in this perfect joke that that.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was just like a throwaway joke for
Speaker 1: the Simpson jinny. But if you put thirty seasons of
Speaker 1: that combined, you get just an amazing masterpiece, one big masterpiece. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I went through and uh looked up a bunch
Speaker 1: of um best episodes of the Simpsons lists, and I'll
Speaker 1: just rattle through those, uh to see what different people think.
Speaker 1: And you can see a little bit of a pattern here.
Speaker 1: I'll just name like the one and two. You're gonna
Speaker 1: share yours too, though, right, I didn't narrow it down, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got a couple of them mentioned then, all right,
Speaker 1: So Rolling Stone Magazine says, uh, Marge versus the Montero
Speaker 1: rails of their best ever with Lesta the Vegetarians number two,
Speaker 1: so good. Digital Spy says Homer the Great is number one.
Speaker 1: Homer the heretic number two. I g N goes with
Speaker 1: Marge versus the Monterareils number one again and Rosebud is
Speaker 1: number two. So good. That one's so great that Citizen
Speaker 1: came parody. Yeah. Uh, Entertainment Weekly monter Rail again is
Speaker 1: number one, and I think actually there are Number two
Speaker 1: is one of my top two. The Cape Fear spoof.
Speaker 1: That was great, you know, yeah, where Sideshow Bob comes
Speaker 1: gets out of prison and stalks Barton family and they
Speaker 1: go into the witness protection program and Homer can't get
Speaker 1: that he has a different name now and he's supposed
Speaker 1: to respond to it. Yeah, He's like, when I call you, Bob,
Speaker 1: will you step on your foot? You say yes? Uh.
Speaker 1: Denn of Geek goes with you Only Move Twice is
Speaker 1: number one. That's the great James Bond spoof. The Hank
Speaker 1: Scorpio and then Homer versus the Eighteenth Amendment is number two.
Speaker 1: What was Oh is that the beer bearing episode? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so that was so great. Consequence of sound
Speaker 1: Homer goes to college number one, Monoail number two, and
Speaker 1: then Vulture goes with Cape Fear number one, and last
Speaker 1: Exit to Springfield is number two. That was the one
Speaker 1: with the dental plan in Lisa needs braces. It's all
Speaker 1: about like union organizing and union busting and all that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I mean definitely minor in there, and I'll just
Speaker 1: go ahead and throw the stone cutters in there as well.
Speaker 1: That was a great one too. Yeah. I have a
Speaker 1: couple of others to add to it, if I may. Homer,
Speaker 1: h O M. Backward Are the one where it turns
Speaker 1: out that Homer has a cran lodged in his brain
Speaker 1: which accounts for his sub average intellect, right, and he
Speaker 1: hasn't removed and he suddenly becomes smart. So this is
Speaker 1: like a really good example of the impact The Simpsons
Speaker 1: had on my life. I love that episode. I thought
Speaker 1: it was great. I watched it again last night. It
Speaker 1: was as good, if not better, than it was ten
Speaker 1: or so years ago. Um. And then today, as I
Speaker 1: was researching it some more, I realized and I didn't
Speaker 1: realize this, but it was based on the premise of
Speaker 1: Flowers for Algernon, and then the movie that was made
Speaker 1: based on Flowers for Algernon Charlie, which explains the backward are.
Speaker 1: There's a backward R and Charlie in the movie title,
Speaker 1: and um, it's kind of roughly parallels that there's a
Speaker 1: rat that Homer is playing a test with that I
Speaker 1: didn't get until I read up on it. So this
Speaker 1: episode that I love and I think it's hilarious, just
Speaker 1: introduced me to Charlie and Flowers for Algernon, which I
Speaker 1: did not read in middle school or high school. So
Speaker 1: I will probably go back and watch Charlie now and
Speaker 1: I will love that Homer episode even more as a result. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: they really do. Because also it's not just that, like
Speaker 1: if they didn't just leave it at well, here's a
Speaker 1: parody of Charlie or Flowers for Algernon, and you'll love
Speaker 1: it for that. It's also the premise of the episode
Speaker 1: is it's an examination of anti intellectualism, you know, and
Speaker 1: the the whole, the whole basis of it is like, hey, no,
Speaker 1: actually it's pretty great to be smart, and that it's
Speaker 1: hard to be smart too, especially in a world of
Speaker 1: dumb dumbs. It's from Matt graining his top ten and
Speaker 1: this was uh, I mean, it's hard to believe that
Speaker 1: this was done seventeen years ago, but a lot of
Speaker 1: people look at the nineties as sort of the golden
Speaker 1: age of the Simpsons. So as for that Golden Age,
Speaker 1: graining stop ten or Bart, the Daredeuble Life on the
Speaker 1: fast Lane much a pooh about nothing, the street car
Speaker 1: named Marge. That one was so good. Uh. In Marge,
Speaker 1: we trust Homer's Enemy Treehouse of Horror, seven natural Born Kissers,
Speaker 1: Krusty gets busted, and there's no disgrace like Home. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm always that the one where the child
Speaker 1: services maybe becomes Oh, I don't know, but that one
Speaker 1: was good. If that is the one if you don't
Speaker 1: have keep your milk in a refrigerator or barring that
Speaker 1: in a cool wet sack. Oh man, maybe we should
Speaker 1: just launch a side podcast on The Simpsons. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: called Josh and Chuck giggle a lot. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's right. Can I throw out a couple more? Oh? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: Lisa the Skeptic was a great one where Stephen J.
Speaker 1: Gould is in it. They find like what looks to
Speaker 1: be an angel fossil, but it's a PR stunt for
Speaker 1: the local mall. H Yeah, yeah, I remember that one.
Speaker 1: The Death of Maud again I think was just about
Speaker 1: as good as an animated TV show has ever gotten,
Speaker 1: as tackling like a serious subject and then I went
Speaker 1: back and watched it again last night and it is
Speaker 1: really great. Um so it's still in my top echelon.
Speaker 1: But in Marge We Trust, which is the Mr. Sparkle episode, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was on Matt Graining's list, and I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, I look through the top tens of all
Speaker 1: those sites, that one's in the top ten of everybody's
Speaker 1: it's just so good. But the thing is is it's
Speaker 1: so trendy now. It's like a social signifier that you're in,
Speaker 1: like a hip in group to say the Simpsons sucked
Speaker 1: after season eight or the Simpsons sucked after season ten,
Speaker 1: and that is demonstrably false. There are so many good
Speaker 1: episodes that you can point to that came after season ten,
Speaker 1: um that that you can't. Like, there's this whole idea
Speaker 1: that there's this thing called Zombie Simpson and it's the
Speaker 1: show that closely resembles the Simpsons and look and feel,
Speaker 1: but it is nowhere near as funny as The Simpsons,
Speaker 1: which actually took place during the nineties. And to me,
Speaker 1: it's smacks of that whole refusal to surrender. What you
Speaker 1: thought was cool or what was cool when you were
Speaker 1: young is now not necessarily as cool as it was,
Speaker 1: which means by proxy, you're not as cool. Right, And
Speaker 1: so there's that whole side thing of aging where you
Speaker 1: want to remain relevant or whatever, and you can become
Speaker 1: cursed to just hang on to what you identify with
Speaker 1: rather than branching out and looking at the world as
Speaker 1: it changes as it changes, right, Um, and I think
Speaker 1: that that's part of it. And I just I think
Speaker 1: that's stupid to just close your mind like that and
Speaker 1: be like the Simpsons sucked after season ten, end of
Speaker 1: story period. And there seems to be a lot of
Speaker 1: people out there who are more than happy to do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the Grabs sure actually had a nice little
Speaker 1: summation about that whole attitude. Um. And dude, what this
Speaker 1: has done is it's made me want to go back
Speaker 1: and I'm going to and start watching the show again.
Speaker 1: Well you can, and here's a little bit of buzz
Speaker 1: marketing for f f X f x X. Sorry. They
Speaker 1: have um every Simpsons episode online and you can watch it.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you have to pay or if
Speaker 1: you just have to sign up and submit to spam
Speaker 1: or whatever, but it's all there. Yeah. Well, I know
Speaker 1: what I'll be doing now at least, like seriously, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're regressing. UM. So ED had a lot of good
Speaker 1: points as far as that, like, it's not as good
Speaker 1: as it used to be. UM could be a perception
Speaker 1: thing because they might be a victim of their own success,
Speaker 1: that it was so great during the nineteen nineties that
Speaker 1: even the slightest fall off from that might be bigger
Speaker 1: than expected. Yeah, and they addressed that in the Itching
Speaker 1: Scratching Pucci episode two, because Ken Brockman reports that um
Speaker 1: cret or Um, the fans of the beloved show have
Speaker 1: been watching for Crux and It's Veneer for years, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's the same thing. It's like, um, if if,
Speaker 1: if you are that good, can you possibly keep it up?
Speaker 1: And if you even slip a little bit, people are
Speaker 1: just gonna throw their hands up. Yeah. Part of it
Speaker 1: is the fragmentation of the audience. I mean, I'm forty
Speaker 1: six years old and I saw the first episode my
Speaker 1: senior year of high school. Yeah, it's ridiculous how long
Speaker 1: the show has been on. And I didn't I think,
Speaker 1: Oh the show sucks now, gotta quit watching it. I
Speaker 1: got a little busy, it fell away and never came back,
Speaker 1: and that just happens sometimes. Sure, I think that happens
Speaker 1: with people who listen to our show, absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't. I don't think people who stopped listening.
Speaker 1: Some people stop listening and discussed mostly conservative Americans, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people they just like their lives changed
Speaker 1: a little bit that you just end up not listening anymore.
Speaker 1: That's fine. Yeah. It also makes a point about, Um,
Speaker 1: the Simpsons was so groundbreaking and it's satire that that's
Speaker 1: being done so much. It's not as Uh, it's just
Speaker 1: not as unique as it used to be. Like they
Speaker 1: they didn't create satire obviously, but in nine and nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety there wasn't a lot of stuff like this at
Speaker 1: all going on television. So there's so much of that
Speaker 1: now there again a little bit of victims of of
Speaker 1: their own success, and that there's there's just so much
Speaker 1: to choose from satirically that it's tough to stick with
Speaker 1: something like that for thirty years and say it's just
Speaker 1: as sharp as it ever was. It may be just
Speaker 1: as sharp as it ever was, but it just might
Speaker 1: not seem that way because so many other people are
Speaker 1: doing what they started. Um, I've read this article and
Speaker 1: I think the New Statesman, and it was basically saying
Speaker 1: the Simpsons is a direct challenge to the GOP's identity
Speaker 1: as the party that provides for, you know, the the
Speaker 1: middle America, the middle American family, because if if they
Speaker 1: were doing such a great job of it, then there
Speaker 1: would be no popularity for the Simpsons or for Roseanne. Right.
Speaker 1: So early on it was like a real challenge to
Speaker 1: the status quo in the established sense of like wholesome
Speaker 1: American nous. George Bush even very famously said George Bush
Speaker 1: sr Um who was a president before w for those
Speaker 1: of you who aren't alive back then, but his George
Speaker 1: Bush sr Said, I want America to be more like
Speaker 1: the Waltons and less like the Simpsons. And Barbara Bush
Speaker 1: said it was the dumbest thing she'd ever seen on TV, right,
Speaker 1: And there was a lot there was a lot of
Speaker 1: that at first, and especially it was because bart was
Speaker 1: his T shirts were everywhere and kids were saying like,
Speaker 1: don't have a cowmand to their parents and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and so part of it was the initial a stake
Speaker 1: in taking of the of the Simpsons and being missing
Speaker 1: what it actually was. But then Another part of it
Speaker 1: was America was just a different place and the moral
Speaker 1: majority was in charge and pretending like everything was absolutely perfect,
Speaker 1: and shows like this came along and really challenged that.
Speaker 1: Today if you look at the current climate. I saw
Speaker 1: a really great, great description of how hard it is
Speaker 1: to be satirical. It was in Al Jazeera and they said,
Speaker 1: in an era when Dennis Rodman is serving as a
Speaker 1: makeshift ambassador to North Korea, it's difficult to write satire
Speaker 1: that stands out. Yeah, And we have friends that uh
Speaker 1: right for uh, for TV and for the Onion and
Speaker 1: and satire, And I know that it's been a challenge
Speaker 1: for them to come up with anything that seems fresh
Speaker 1: and unique in this day and age, you know. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's part of it too. Uh. Here's some
Speaker 1: sanctimonious drivel from Bill Cosby August thirty, first nine nine
Speaker 1: Entertainment Weekly magazine. Mr Cosby said TV should be I
Speaker 1: would do a Cosby voice pecific funny to do that anymore. Uh.
Speaker 1: TV should be moving in a direction from the Huxtable's forward,
Speaker 1: not backward. The mean spirit and cruel think this kind
Speaker 1: of programming is the edge, and their excuses that's the
Speaker 1: way people are today. But why should we be entertained
Speaker 1: by that? So and this was the time when Bill
Speaker 1: Cosby was like the moral mouthpiece of America, you know.
Speaker 1: And and so in a sense like Matt Greening took
Speaker 1: him on and took on the bushes and um just
Speaker 1: took on that whole false wholesomeness. And today it's like now,
Speaker 1: you just it's not even a question like of course
Speaker 1: that that whole thing is taken on. Like go try
Speaker 1: to find a show on Prime Time that even vaguely
Speaker 1: resembles Major Dad or My Two Dads. You can't find it.
Speaker 1: They're not there. Everything is has gone the opposite end
Speaker 1: of the spectrum, and it's become we were just entirely cynical,
Speaker 1: but we're so cynical that there isn't room for satire
Speaker 1: like there used to be. So now I think there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a backlash, probably from I don't know where
Speaker 1: it's gonna come from, but I predict basically a wholesome
Speaker 1: backlash or um, I don't think it's gonna be that
Speaker 1: whole earnest thing that didn't actually take off very well.
Speaker 1: Everybody got sick of that really quick. But there's going
Speaker 1: to be I think something a little more um bona
Speaker 1: fide and genuine that will develop out of cynicism, because
Speaker 1: I don't think you can keep I don't think cynicism
Speaker 1: can be maintained for too long before everybody just kind
Speaker 1: of commits cultural suicide, you know, I think it's already happening,
Speaker 1: Like shows like Masters of None and uh from Zis
Speaker 1: and Sorry and tig Nataro's One Mississippi, Like, have you've
Speaker 1: seen those shows? They're not cynical. They're very kind of sweet,
Speaker 1: warmhearted shows, and they're funny, and they may bring up
Speaker 1: relevant satirical things, but they're both very genuine shows and
Speaker 1: it's just done in the right way. It's not, you know,
Speaker 1: touched by an angel. Right, And that was another reason
Speaker 1: Chuck that that Barbara Bush and George Bush really missed
Speaker 1: the point because The Simpsons may have ultimately kind of
Speaker 1: created the groundwork for America to create the cynical shift
Speaker 1: or shift to the cynicism maybe or maybe that was
Speaker 1: politics one of the two, right, Um, but they missed
Speaker 1: the basis of the Simpsons, and the basis of the
Speaker 1: Simpsons is morality, like actual real morality, like making good
Speaker 1: moral decisions, making bad moral decisions, having consequences, family coming
Speaker 1: together and actually like looking out for one another. Things
Speaker 1: actually kind of working out in the end, like bart
Speaker 1: And and Marge having their marriage tested. But then it's
Speaker 1: surviving and being stronger on the other side. But without
Speaker 1: a hint of schmaltziness, without a hint of fake wholesomeness.
Speaker 1: It was they had the wherewithal to put that through
Speaker 1: those those tropes or those those moral ideas, through the
Speaker 1: grinder of reality and managed to get it out on
Speaker 1: the other side and said, see, you actually can be
Speaker 1: a good, moral, upstanding person and and survive in cynical times,
Speaker 1: in times that beat you down. And um, we're proving
Speaker 1: it every Sunday with with our show man. What a
Speaker 1: great show, What a great show. Thank you, Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you to the Simpsons and everyone who's ever been
Speaker 1: involved in it for making it. Because you literally changed
Speaker 1: the world and and for the better. That's right. And
Speaker 1: as a May of this year, uh, the Simpsons as
Speaker 1: broadcast more than six hundred episodes, aired for more seasons
Speaker 1: than any prime time scripted show in TV history, and
Speaker 1: by the time the thirtieth season will end, there will
Speaker 1: be more episodes of the Simpsons than any other prime
Speaker 1: time scripted show. Uh, finally, finally passing Gun smoke Man
Speaker 1: Man Alive, Chuck Dude, great job, great job to YouTube buddy.
Speaker 1: This was a pleasure. Um, I think I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: go back and start researching the Simpsons against So maybe
Speaker 1: we should do that side podcast meet my good Um
Speaker 1: so is this it? Is this the end? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: when LOUI of listener mail uh nine and nine, nine
Speaker 1: and one thousand episode, we shall give thanks to everyone
Speaker 1: out there that, uh, how appropriate that the Simpsons is
Speaker 1: our tribute such a long running show, and here we
Speaker 1: are at someplace that we never ever, ever ever thought
Speaker 1: that we would be, to say the least. No, we've
Speaker 1: done pretty good for a show that has rights free
Speaker 1: theme music, you know, yeah, like software canned theme music. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like people write in sometimes like I heard your theme
Speaker 1: song on a mattress ad. Are you guys gonna suthe them? Nope, Nope,
Speaker 1: can't do it. Uh So we said it a lot
Speaker 1: of the years, But obviously we would not still be
Speaker 1: doing this if all of you were not out there
Speaker 1: downloading and listening and interacting with each other via this stuff.
Speaker 1: You should know Army coming out to see us live
Speaker 1: on tour. It is uh man, this is surpast every
Speaker 1: expectation that either one of us, including Jerry, ever had
Speaker 1: for ourselves. And uh, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you forever. Yeah, thank you to not just like
Speaker 1: the super fans, but the fans, the casual listeners, basically
Speaker 1: anyone who's ever heard of stuff you should know episode,
Speaker 1: Listen to it, learn something from it, laugh to themselves
Speaker 1: over it, maybe got a weird look on the subway
Speaker 1: or what have Thanks to all of you. Thank you
Speaker 1: to all of you for supporting us for this long
Speaker 1: and um, chuckers, here's to the next thousand episodes. Buddy,
Speaker 1: let's do it. And then Jerry, you are you down
Speaker 1: with another thousand episodes? That's great, Jerry. And you know what, Jerry,
Speaker 1: do you want to say a few words? I think
Speaker 1: I think she should chuck All right, let let's hear it.
Speaker 1: Go for it, Jerry. H Well put Jerry, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: actually made me tear up. Yeah. Uh So. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: while you wait for episode two thousand, you can get
Speaker 1: in touch with us. You can tweet to us at
Speaker 1: s Y s K podcast. I'm also at josh um
Speaker 1: Clark on Twitter, Chucks at Charles W. Chuck Bryant on Facebook.
Speaker 1: I'm a Josh Clark, I think on Facebook something like that.
Speaker 1: You can also visit our official Facebook page at slash
Speaker 1: stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email,
Speaker 1: including Jerry Dear Jerry Rowland, who I'm just gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and say it for a thousandth episode, Chuck Jerry
Speaker 1: does in fact exists. You can send us an email
Speaker 1: to Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Uh
Speaker 1: and as always, joined us at our home on the web,
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com