Talking Simpsons - Bart Vs Thanksgiving With Tim Kalpakis

My dad passed the week this was posted, and it's rather fitting it's this episode, because I specifically remember him HATING it. "I'd have smacked the shit out of Bart - HE WAS WRONG." I have to agree - an early misfire, for sure.

Thad Komorowski

About Patty & Selma bringing Swedish Meatballs. I think there are a few things at play: 1) Marge didn't ask them, and as she takes pride in her abilities as a chef and hostess, she sees it as a direct slight against her cooking (which it is as Patty & Selma say that 'some' people find Marge's turkey dry)

John Harrison

My father referred to those wrapped up bales of hay as marshmallows, saying things like "Looks like a good year for marshmallows this year"

John Harrison

Great episode!

Padjoe

On the subject of things kids just inherently believe, when I was young my Mum bought back a bunch of fresh fruit, including grapes, which I love. To stop me eating them all she made up the total lie that if you eat more than a dozen or so grapes in any one day you get severe stomach cramps. I continued to believe this until well into my teenage years. When i was relaying that story to a colleague, he confessed that his parents had informed him that the large plastic sheets that farmers wrap hay bales in were cow eggs, and he'd never had cause to question that... until college.

Taskbaarchitect

I wanted to point out that Marjorie Stoneman Douglas got a high school named after her...in Parkland, Florida.

Rhomega

I remember it being used on Designing Women as well, and as recently as Monk

Paul

It surprises me Allen Ginsberg hasn't been cancelled altogether since he was a pedophilia activist

Dan Z

Great episode, guys. Really enjoying these deep dives into the Season Two classics. :) Just wanted to add a quick thought about why the ending for this gets away with being so sentimental. I think it's because the fight between Bart and Lisa is SO real that you need a much sweeter-than-usual ending to counter-balance it. In my opinion, having raised the emotional stakes so high, any type of insincere ending wouldn't have worked. The writers and actors really nailed the tone for this. I actually considered skipping past the "You don't even care" part because hearing it is so uncomfortably relatable (almost like it's channeling a repressed childhood memory). It really is such an excellent scene. Thanks again for the great podcasts. ^_^

To Boldy Joe... Moore

Some of these really early episodes are the ones I remember the most. Prior to the DVDs, I had the VHS box sets that only had 6 episodes (2 episodes per tape – 3 tapes), and a short on each tape. So many of these I watched over and over. The slowness of it, whether intentional or not, really feels just for a Thanksgiving episode. The whole _what’s THIS person doing?_ _what’s THAT person doing?_ _ope, ol so-&-so just arrived_. One thing I never understood though was why Marge was offended that Patty and Selma brought a dish. Yes, Marge was making the turkey, but wasn’t custom back then – like today, to bring a dish as well? I also remember during a sleepover; I showed some The Simpsons episodes to a friend who hadn’t really seen much of them at that point. As a kid, I thought it was very clear that Bart was wrong in this and vehemently sided with Lisa. My friend shocked me and sided with Bart. Now something I cringe at, from there on I thought of myself as a social scientist and would show this episode to friends as a bit of a Rorschach test; trying to pick their brains on their takeaway.

To tie both Bob & Henry's blood donation stories together.... My freshman year of college me and some friends went to donate plasma. I had recently come out and casually mentioned my boyfriend to the phlebotomist. She was a butch lesbian that wore a rainbow bracelet, so I felt comfortable talking to her. I also was on a bit of a high from coming out and making gay friends and dating that I probably was a bit of an over sharer at the time. She asked me some polite questions, “what’s his name”, “what’s *his* major”, etc. But then quietly in a hall when no one was around said, “you have to be careful when you come in. They won’t let you donate if you’re sexually active with other men.” She then gave me a very non-soapboxy speech to make sure I’m safe and how many of her friends had tested positive over the years. In a subtle way, she clued me in there’s a time and place to be outspoken about your sexuality, but maybe this wasn’t the place (this part may seem in contrast to our politics today, but in 2004 Bush-era “save the family” rhetoric, I understood what she meant). This is my first instance of an “older” gay giving young dumb puppy me advice on how to navigate the world and be safe. I’m certain she’s long forgotten of my existence, but she’s one of those people we meet in a fleeting moment that means a lot to me.

A variant of the "get me the number for 911" was used in an episode of The Golden Palace (The Golden Girls spin off, minus Bea Arthur and plus Don Cheadle). Rose is held up at the front desk and plays dumb to get him to leave. Then at the end during her self-congratulatory speech asks for the number for 911. It can be found here: https://youtu.be/XPfC2yITm-Q

I'm going to be real, too, I hope you just plow directly into a season 3 rewatch alongside season 13

crystalhearts

that was a great one - I'm really revising my opinion of the series, seasons 2 and 3 are ideal to me. there's something about the sitcom heart plus the klasky csupo animation that really hits the mark for me.

crystalhearts

Until hearing this episode of the podcast this morning I had no idea that “Up with People” was real. I only knew them from Bart V. Thanksgiving, and had long assumed they were meant as a parody of the “Young Americans” show choir. Which I think might also have a lot of uncomfortable right wing connections, though maybe not QUITE as nefarious? And I only knew about the Young Americans from my days reading “American Cheerleader” magazine as a teen. And on a related note, I grew up in Michigan, and it was a BIG deal one year, because our football team made the state finals, which were held at the Pontiac Silverdome on Thanksgiving Day, which meant I got to cheer at the Silverdome that Thanksgiving. Aside from coming to watch me cheer at the high school games, no one in my family new or cared anything about football and my only context for the Silverdome was this episode of the Simpsons, so when I found out that we were going there I was like “Cool! Like the Simpsons” and everyone else on my team was super confused.

Kat Heagberg

The "Operator, get me the number for 911" gag always bothered me, since it was flagrantly a street joke. I remember even at the time of airing, schoolyard friends mentioned it was previously used in an issue of Mad magazine. Even after a quick google search it seemed to have been used in an episode of Home Improvement. The Simpson's strength as a show was always writing jokes no one else could think of, in the unique voice and trailblazing comedic language of the writer's room. I suppose even geniuses of comedy occasionally have to phone in a line to keep the rest of the script such high quality.