Talking Simpsons - Dead Putting Society With Mike Hanford

I can answer this: we had champagne a friend bought for us.

nina matsumoto

The reference to Flanders's beer coming from Holland, I believe, is a clear reference to the trend from the 80s where another country's "regular" beer would be imported into the US and thus become "premium". The most famous Dutch brand would, of course, be Heineken, but this marketing strategy also included Amstel Light also from the Netherlands, Stella Artois from Belgium, and even Fosters from Australia. As my mother tells it, when my parents were engaged and planning their 1984 wedding, my father had two requests: Does the venue play Bruce Springsteen? And does it serve Heineken? Obviously being born and bred in New Jersey, my dad would be a huge fan of the Boss, but since those days, he's grown more conservative and bristles when this story comes up. He doesn't like to be reminded that he was once a fan of that "damned radical liberal". Bob, since you're a beer connoisseur, what did you and Nina drink to celebrate your nuptials? I reckon it wasn't any variety of Molson...

Have to say, I absolutely lost it at: Henry: Garfield's my big-eyed, lasagna-lovin' friend! *Companionable laughter ensues* Bob (sotto voce): ...He'd sell you out in a second.

Taskbaarchitect

Those are also all pretty low APV. Macho Mug factor excluded.

Kat Heagberg

Seriously, fuck those free Chobani yogurts, though. And as a former start-up office worker, I have a legitimate trauma response to those peanut-butter-fiiled pretzels.

Kat Heagberg

I did watch a few episodes of the Jason Alexander sitcom Listen Up. I can't tell you much about it other than in one episode Alexander's character ends up doing a nude photo shoot that he mistakenly agreed to. I'm surprised it lasted the whole season. Of course, I can't hear a discussion about Milli Vanilli without thinking of their bizarre appearance on the Super Mario Bros 3 cartoon. Here's a link if you can stomach the horrid animation, writing, and voices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHojRrVEATE

PurpleComet

Bart and Todd should have had cheques for $30. The second place $10 prize should have been added to the prizing they split. That's what golf does with ties. I really hope someone got fired for that blunder.

Alex Forsyth

It's a fine episode, but once I get past this episode in a Simpsons rewatch, I feel relief. Once Bart vs. Thanksgiving rolls around, season 2 and the show in general truly becomes great.

I had to do a deep dive when I heard Ned offering Homer a "tasty little lager from Holland." The three biggest brands of beer from the Netherlands are Heineken, Grolsch, and Amstel, all of which were available in the US Market at the time. This might be the one instance where he is flaunting to Homer because kegerators are not cheap and his collection of ornate steins. Ned being a fan of beer is something I don't think he would be within future seasons, but as Reverend Lovejoy says "Our commandments clearly state that beer is all right."

SilkiePJ

This is not quite a great episode, but it's pretty solid, and does a lot of table-setting for the world. Bart's one hand clapping is a highlight. I also noticed on this rewatch how much it at least sounds like Dan is ad-libbing some lines, especially with his "Oh no!" delivery in the middle of reading Ned's letter. I don't know if he is, but it's a great vocal performance. Also I didn't notice Bart had a 41 on the course before any training with Lisa: that's a really solid score! It seems like Bart has the ability and basically just needs Lisa's support to get over his fear of failure.

Chris Dobson

My local putt-putt-and-arcade put up a banner advertising it's Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet, then shut down shortly after. The banner was up well into the PlayStation 2 era, if not longer.

Bradford A Barker

You guys are spot on about Homer being thirsty AF for Maude, with them really ramping it up right before they killed her off. My favorite homer is secretly or not so secretly horny for Maude Flanders (that I don’t think you guy’s mentioned) is in the hello gutter hello father episode where Kent says “it’s time to put this one trick pony out to stud” and homer just shouts “woo hop! first stop Maude Flanders”

Andrew Giachetti

This episode feels like it's from a different universe and I feel a million years old.

Thad Komorowski

I loved mini golf when I was a kid, and still think it's fun enough as an adult. Encountering the really fun ones though was kind of rare and I think that's because most were built in the 70s and then allowed to just deteriorate overtime. In nearby Revere, MA, there was a popular spot on Route 1 with a giant, orange, T-Rex that became a local landmark. The actual mini golf establishment closed down years ago, but the dinosaur was allowed to remain. It was even stolen at one point as a likely prank, and the news coverage surrounding it was a little insane. The thieves (and there had to have been multiples as this is a big dinosaur bolted to the ground) would return it reminding us all of that wonderful Simpsons classic "The Tell-Tale Head." There definitely is a shortage of fun and interesting mini golf establishments around me now. I remember back in 98 going to Disney World with my family and we decided to do mini golf one night we were there thinking Disney World mini golf would be amazing. It was not, as it was just a series of conventional greens with no windmills or castles or anything. It was apparently extremely expensive for a round of mini golf, expensive enough that my dad insisted on finishing his round while the rest of the family quit because the winds were howling and there were tornado warnings in the area. We retired to our hotel eventually and woke up to some pretty extreme devastation in Florida (Disney was spared) so that's the time remembered as when dad made us play mini golf while tornadoes were dotting the landscape around us.

Joe Hodgson