Talking Simpsons - The Frying Game With Eric Szyszka
Added 2023-04-12 04:00:03 +0000 UTCWe welcome returning great Eric Szyszka from the We Hate Movies podcast for arguably the worst episode of season 13! This incredibly scattershot story begins with a screaming bug, an arrest, and a skeleton all in the first act, then it turns into a murder mystery before a too-long parody of Green Mile. But surely it'll all come together for a satisfying ending, right? You'll only know if you listen to this week's podcast, you nervous Pervis!
Comments
Bob saying that Newt Gengrich looks like a big pile of shit was one of the biggest laugh out loud moments I've ever had listening to the TS network. Nicely done.
Burt Stanton
2023-04-23 22:42:09 +0000 UTCI like the line “surprise her with a pasta salad”
Erin MacAllister
2023-04-19 19:07:15 +0000 UTCI'm surprised I was still regularly watching into Season 14 after enduring stuff like this, but I know I was because I sometimes mix this one up with the next reality TV episode they did. I feel like I always have to look up the episode synopses just to remind myself which one had the Screamapillar, and which one had Squiggy. But I guess the Season 14 episode also has a first act that involves insects, so the confusion isn't entirely my fault.
Christmas Ape
2023-04-15 16:59:30 +0000 UTCWe covered that episode of Family Guy on What A Cartoon!
Bob Mackey
2023-04-15 03:39:56 +0000 UTCThis episode is making me question my memory. I'm sure I saw it a few times back in the day, back when it first aired and re-runs but re-watching for the podcast there are parts that I remember but actually didn't happen. In my memory the whole episode was setup by the Frame Up show, with them giving Homer the koi pond to give to Marge, them planting the Screamapillar and them portraying the EPA. They were also involved with the trail and sentencing. I remember it being revealed at the end of the episode in a similar way to how Bart flashes back to explain the ending of "Black Widower". It seems like my memory tried to improve the story of the episode, probably due to reasons you explained so well in the podcast.
David Thomson
2023-04-14 09:35:56 +0000 UTCSince season 13 is in the era of needing to compete with the crassness of South Park AND Family Guy, it’s important to note that this episode seems like a complete rip off of the Season 3 Episode 17 Family Guy Episode titled Brian Wallows and Peter’s Swallows… in 2002 I actually got the two mixed up, in FG, Peter grows a beard because he loves Grizzly Adams and when it’s thick enough an endangered bird makes his beard home and has three babies in it, while an EPA type tells him he can’t get rid of them and in the SAME EPISODE the other storyline features a DUI arrested Bryan doing community service by doing MEALS ON WHEELS and befriending an reclusive old lady with an interesting past. Obvi, Simpsons is the better show but seeing as the FG episode was January 17, 2002 and the Simpsons episode was May 2002 is pretty low for the Simpsons, and the FG is actually a lot better! (I hope someone got fired for that) also, Lizzy Caplin already played a young Annie Wilkes in the forgotten second season of Castle Rock. I shouldn’t be attracted to Annie Wilkes lol… great episode with my fav hater of movies Eric. Love the show and keep up the great work- Carlos (a Stonecutter tier subscriber) 👍🏻
Carlos Ramirez
2023-04-14 03:06:43 +0000 UTCCircling back to the screamapillar, the "maybe this species just wants to die out," is, I think, a long-running take about pandas and their problems with mating in captivity and digesting food. After a certain previous episode, maybe it's good for the writers to take a break from pandas, directly.
Bradford A Barker
2023-04-13 19:45:59 +0000 UTCI was just talking about this episode last weekend, because my sister was explaining the new TV show Jury Duty: a new mockumentary about a trial in which one of the jurors is apparently unaware that he's in a TV show. Not exactly the same, but... SIMPSONS DID IT!!
Stephen Cass
2023-04-13 13:22:53 +0000 UTCI have an interesting history with this episode as it was the first episode of The Simpsons I ever caught live. I had only just started watching The Simpsons in syndication, which mostly consisted of Season 7 and 8 episodes at the time and me, being an ignorant eleven-year, I barely could tell the difference quality-wise. Even when I started watching regularly with Season 14 and it having way more comparatively tighter story-driven episodes like "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", the fact that "The Frying Game" was a bad episode never hit me. That is until, after years of religously watching Seasons 1 through 11 on DVD, I was moving into my first apartment right around the time FXX was having their Every Simpsons Ever Marathon and I caught that episode. Even in the midst of several "worse-than-I-remembered" episodes that I had watched beforehand while I assembled Ikea furniture, this one stuck out the most thanks to my prior history. Thank god I was only a kid with only a rudimentary knowledge of The Simpsons at the time. That's the only reason why this episode didn't turn me off for good.
KaiserBeamz
2023-04-13 11:47:39 +0000 UTCIt never bothered me whenever The Simpsons made anti-union jokes. They were always so over-the-top that they came off as ironic (as opposed to the soapboxing you'd hear on South Park)
Ian Stratton
2023-04-13 07:04:21 +0000 UTCAlso big screamapillar fan. I’m also pleasantly surprised by the amount of Marge/Lisa lines in such a Swartzweldien scene.
Kat Heagberg
2023-04-13 05:21:30 +0000 UTCthis episode wasnt my personal stopping point as a regular viewer, (that will be in a few more eps from now), but it is the time where 'first it started falling over' for me. i think ive come around on the screamapillar, which i hated on first viewing for being really gross (it weirds me out when realistic puking is shown on the simpsons), but in retrospect, homer and marge treating it like a baby is still pretty funny
Sean Riley
2023-04-12 21:18:10 +0000 UTCThis is the last episode of The Simpsons I can recall being talked about at school the next day. This aired during the waning days of my senior year of high school and I can just remember one friend bringing it up at the lunch table because he was so taken by how "random" the show had become. I don't think he necessarily was complimenting it, but was just surprised at how much of a turn it had taken and it was amusing to him on some level. I do think he was legitimately entertained by the concept of the Scream-a-pillar. Naturally, I wanted to see it for myself after the discussion as I missed the initial airing and I didn't see it until summer reruns. I basically checked out mentally after the Scream-a-pillar thing because the episode just keeps going all over the place. I often forget what the rest of the plot is as a result until I rewatch it and immediately regret it. Following this season I basically stopped watching The Simpsons save for the Halloween episode and occasional milestone entry like episode 400, 500, etc. I didn't even realize I missed having this show in my life until I started buying up the DVDs at used media stores.
Joe Hodgson
2023-04-12 18:36:41 +0000 UTCAnyone think, being so close to the end of his run on the show, this was a "I can't wait to see how you handle this fucking mess" parting gift from Swartzwelder? The New Yorker interview makes it so painfully clear that JS knows what the show turned into so it's not farfetched to think he was deliberately handing in disasters with libertarian "let's see how much WORSE they make it" glee. More negativity please.
Thad Komorowski
2023-04-12 15:23:17 +0000 UTCWow! This is the first episode you all have done in which I had no recollection of anything in the show. Afterwards, i watched the show and was completely perplexed. I have seen all of the others this season, but somehow missed this after many years.
JJMArtwork
2023-04-12 13:48:43 +0000 UTCI'm not going to lie, I love the screamapillar. I just laugh every time I hear it make noise cause it's just Dan doing tiny homer screams.
Boyd Adkins IV
2023-04-12 09:43:30 +0000 UTCRewatched this in advance of the podcast a few days ago and I am *still mad* about that limp, lazy ending…though Homer’s last line still amuses me.
Diamond Feit
2023-04-12 09:00:50 +0000 UTCThis episode is a mess, but I must say the Screamapillar always made me laugh. Maybe my bar for humour is low. Or maybe I relate to its constant need for reassurance to avoid death.
Erin Sale
2023-04-12 07:00:53 +0000 UTCWhen ever someone shares one of those make me pick between two things I always say Muhammad Ali in his prime and antilock brakes
Langdon Alger
2023-04-12 06:57:31 +0000 UTCI support Lenny's formal name being "Lenford." 😛 One of my only memories from the original airing of the episode is the line, "Dead Man Walking on the Green Mile." I think you focused on the "Green Mile" part, but I recognized at the time the "Dead Man Walking" movie title reference, which (looking it up) started Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon. And wasn't memorable? The "Green Mile" bit was very "Family Guy." There wasn't really an angle, just a, "Hey, it's the one thing from the thing, and it's meaner." For the movie itself, I remember my dad mentioning that "John Coffee", in his state execution and healing powers, is a "Jesus Christ" stand-in, and being a bit miffed that early high school me didn't pick up on it.
Bradford A Barker
2023-04-12 06:51:23 +0000 UTCGoodness, yes! I have a such a clear memory of watching this as child in my living room and just feeling so confused by that ending 😂. Obviously one of the more jarring ending’s, through I think I may it to Season 16
G
2023-04-12 06:21:36 +0000 UTC
