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Talking Simpsons - Homer vs Dignity With Nick Wiger (Patreon)

Published:
2021-04-07 04:00:00
Imported:
2026-06
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This week's episode is one of the most controversial Simpsons ever, and we lean upon the insights of returning fave Nick Wiger from the great podcasts Doughboys and How Did This Get Played?! Homer becomes Burns' prank monkey for high pay and low dignity, leading to perhaps the lowest moment in Simpsons history. How does it fare today? How does it reflect the comedy of 2000? And what about The Noid? We discuss it all in this tapioca-covered podcast!

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Comments

Dylan

The visual of "sarcastic hate laughter" is so fucking funny to me

Matt

“Calmly eating candy like a Spaniard” is still in my shared vocabulary with my dad

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

I had TOTALLY forgotten that this was the infamous... Panda Assault episode, so I was having a pretty damn good time until Homer was in the zoo enclosure in that costume, when the memory of what was to come hit me like a brick wall. It's just such a crass, late 90s/early 2000s awful, violent joke that's really emblematic of how much Simpsons wished it was as edgy as Family Guy and South Park. So far, even with this pretty egregious bit, I'd still say this is probably my favourite episode of season 12. But damn, the whiplash of having forgotten just what this episode contained and having a good time until memories returned to me was absolutely not something I was expecting to encounter through one of these podcasts. D'oh.

RWOB

"on some podcast..." ;)

Frank Grimes

Maybe cause I wasn't really on newsgroups or forums talking about the simpsons when this originally aired, but had no idea this was deemed "controversial". (unless the controversy is post-airing)..amongst my circle, we thought it was a decent overall, minus the panda stuff. What we remembered most was the Lenny/Pudding scene

Echo Cimarron

I never got what all the fuss was about with Principal and the Pauper, but this episode (and the residual bad taste of Kill the Alligator and Run) took me from appointment viewing to just catching a new episode if I couldn't think of anything better to do. Even as a dirtbag edgy teen the panda rape scene was a bit much. That said, Burns yelling "Merry Fishmas!" from the float is still one of my favorite moments from this era of the show, so I guess it's not all bad.

Eve of the Stars

I've always loved the bluntness of "I'm in hell!" from Lenny. For some reason that's the part of this episode that stuck with me the most

K-S-O

Talking Simpsons: Now in Funky Mode!

Graeme Black Robinson

I'm backing Henry up here: I also had a cafetorium in my middle school!

Shane H

*trigger warning, more assault talk* This is episode is bad, but man did South Park and Family Guy go hard for the same shitty "joke". South Park has too many to count, but the rape runner with Nathan is awful. The one that really haunts me is when Peter has the exact same thing happen in "Dial M for Meg". In that Peter in a rodeo gets assaulted by an anthropomorphic bull. I hate it, and it goes on for way longer and feels even more violent. They even call back to it in the episode, which is unbelievable.

TheShockmaster

I'm not sure which is worse to contemplate - the idea that the panda rape was something they threw in when they rewrote the second half after the original (even worse?) draft bombed at the table read, or that it might have been in the first half that did WELL at the table.

Joe Hodgson

This episode always surprises me anytime I re-watch it. I, like many, remember it for the bad rape joke and as a result my first reaction whenever this episode is brought up is mostly negative. And then I watch it and I find myself actually being quite entertained by it. The Lenny scene is as classic as this era of Simpsons can get and I do really enjoy the Burns portrayal. It loses steam basically with the rape joke as the last act is pretty "meh." And that panda scene, about the only positive thing I can say about it is at least they didn't go full Family Guy and make Homer improbably pregnant at the end of the episode. I grew up in unremarkable New Hampshire and we had a cafeteria/gym/auditorium which was referred to as the APR, or All-Purpose Room. I prefer cafetorium.

Neil L

I love Wiger as a guest. I lit up when I heard his voice! Hope you can get Mitch one day.

Frank Grimes

Forget this also had the con-quer joke..I use that line consistently

Rhomega

I've also used the term "cafetorium", and since both my elementary schools used it as a cafeteria, auditorium, and gym, I coined the term "cafetoriym". Also, my first DVD was Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

Dennis Kanenwisher

Funny you bring up expensive comics, a copy of Action Comics #1 sold for 3.25M dollars today.

Erick Hohnstein-Van Etten

Henry’s accidental reference to “rosebudding” might be the filthiest moment ever on your podcast, haha. Thanks for another great episode!

Boyd Adkins IV

Growing up my elementary school had a cafetorium that also acted as our gym. There was a stage with bleacher seats that also had basketball rims that folded up and rollaway tables. I referred to it as a gymatoria but it never stuck. I didn’t see these separated under middle school

SomeBloke

As a graduate of more than one online Funky Winkerbean disparaging groups, I need to point out a little more about the Crankshaft connection, because it's bonkers (and not the What a Cartoon kind). Crankshaft spun-off from Funky Winkerbean after the latter's first time skip, as an attempt to preserve some more humorous elements as the main strip pivoted towards soap opera dramatics... but much later Funky Winkerbean had a *second* time skip, which Crankshaft didn't follow. So now there are two concurrently running Funky Winkerbean timelines, each taking place in the present, but also somehow over ten years apart in a way that would make superhero comics blush. And then to make things worse, Funky Winkerbean is arguably an artifact title, because while Funky and his extended family *are* characters, the main emphasis is arguably on Les Moore, who is clearly some kind of self-insert character who profited off the story of his wife going through cancer in much the same way Funky Winkerbean's only real burst of mainstream attention came from that cancer storyline. The depths of self-absorbed hack writing are unfathomable. This is all to say one of the recurring jokes in one of said FW groups was precisely the "OVER HERE, FUNKY!" line from this episode, to the extent that I completely forgot it was from this episode. Ah, memories.

Paul

The weirdest thing about the ending to me is: Homer refused to throw the first guts on people, but just handed over his suit and control of the float without incident? YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED IT HOMER, THAT MAN IS 105 YEARS OLD

Kat Heagberg

I had no idea until now how many of my regular, everyday sayings come from this episode, and it definitely makes me hate it less. Somehow "avoid the Noid; he ruins pizzas" has become "avoid the Noid; he murders pizzas," which my husband and I say whenever we have a bad pizza, which is often, since we live in Los Angeles. I also remember as a kid feeling REALLY SEEN by Marge's Funky Winkerbean comment. My local newspaper did not publish Funky Winkerbean or Crankshaft, but one of my earliest memories involves coming across a Funky Winkerbean bookmark at Walden Books and being fascinated by the character. Walden Books didn't change their merchandise very often, and eventually I learned to read and learned that the name of the character on the bookmark was Funky Winkerbean. My 5/6 year old brain registered this a "very cool teenager with very cool name" (disclaimer, I still don't know who or what Funky Winkerbean actually is). But, whenever I brought up Funky Winkerbean to anyone, they were just like "what the hell are you talking about?" So I stopped. Then years later, when I heard Marge's unabashed "Over here, Funky!" I was so happy, like "YES! SOMEONE ELSE KNOWS WHO THIS IS." Anyway, now I'm off to Google Funky Winkerbean. And thanks for another entertaining episode!

Devin Hoffarth

When I was young I never contextualized the Panda scene as him actually assaulting Homer in that way. IDK why but I sort of just assumed the Panda was mauling him and the joke was the audience were horribly misinterpreting what was going on. I choose to believe that's the truth of the scene but yea probably not...

ty howell de winkle (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-07 10:00 Regarding the Malibu Stacy musical, I always feel like musicals based on franchises get a bad rap. Some movies turned musical find a different voice and aren't just cheap tourist cash grabs. I'm thinking of some like Matilda, Waitress, or Kinky Boots. And a lot of times these are short running anyway compared to the ridiculously long running obligatory ones (Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago) or the ones that theater goers love (Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown). “Another Movie Turned Musical” is just an easy headline and punching bag. All of that being said – I love camp and absolutely would go to a Malibu Stacy Musical just like I'm still waiting for The Hulk Musical from Rick & Morty.
2021-04-08 20:16 Regarding the Malibu Stacy musical, I always feel like musicals based on franchises get a bad rap. Some movies turned musical find a different voice and aren't just cheap tourist cash grabs. I'm thinking of some like Matilda, Waitress, or Kinky Boots. And a lot of times these are short running anyway compared to the ridiculously long running obligatory ones (Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago) or the ones that theater goers love (Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown). “Another Movie Turned Musical” is just an easy headline and punching bag. All of that being said – I love camp and absolutely would go to a Malibu Stacy Musical just like I'm still waiting for The Hulk Musical from Rick & Morty.

Regarding the Malibu Stacy musical, I always feel like musicals based on franchises get a bad rap. Some movies turned musical find a different voice and aren't just cheap tourist cash grabs. I'm thinking of some like Matilda, Waitress, or Kinky Boots. And a lot of times these are short running anyway compared to the ridiculously long running obligatory ones (Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago) or the ones that theater goers love (Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown). “Another Movie Turned Musical” is just an easy headline and punching bag. All of that being said – I love camp and absolutely would go to a Malibu Stacy Musical just like I'm still waiting for The Hulk Musical from Rick & Morty.

Kat Heagberg
>>57350589

Agreed. I haven't seen it myself, but I've heard that the Spongebob Musical is very good. I'd also give a franchise-based musical a shot any day before I'd go see Phantom for the 903rd time.

SilkiePJ

Other than the Panda assault scene, I really dislike how this episode uses the trend of Lisa/Marge make Homer guilty for taking money. It starts as one of the few Scully episodes that brings back The Simpsons financial insecurity but removes that so it can have a very slapdash moral about dignity in an episode that already got so dark, trying to make it sentimental doesn't work. Considering Homer already works for Burns, him taking the money in this way is not that awful. It's a big reason I really dislike the endings of "The Old Man and the Lisa" and " Half-Decent Proposal" for aiming at a preacy high-ground. Atleast this episode gives me the great "There's Funky Winkerbean!" phrase that's always been one of my favorite Marge jokes. Nick Wiger was great to join in on the joke doctoring!

Anonymous
>>57350589

@Kat I had tickets for SpongeBob (the tour version) for March 14th, 2020 - I think you can guess it was cancelled a few days before lol! I listened to the cast recording leading up to it and it's definitely fun! One I really love is the Jagged Little Pill musical. They wove Alanis' music wonderfully through really powerful scenes. If I made a top 20 of my favorite musicals it would include "original" ones, things based off movies/book, comedy, drama, etc. I think there's a place for all of them! :)

Erin Hardy

Cleveland resident chiming in: the comment section of our newspaper's Facebook page is always packed with assholes posting Chief Wahoo gifs and whining about how banning fans from entering the stadium wearing "warpaint" and headdresses is actually racist against Native Americans. 🤦🏾‍♀️

nic

sorry but the “chew through my ball sack” line rules ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Micah
>>57376184

I dont like the line, but I am a sucker for the animal reaction shot

Kris

We had something similar to the cafetorium (cafeteria/auditorium mix) but it was always just called the cafeteria, but officially it was the MPR (multipurpose room)

Owl In A Cage

My junior high school had a combination gymnasium/auditorium that was labelled as the "gymnatorium," though nobody called it that. I remember finding it strange because the other schools I had gone to at the time had had a similar gymnasium/auditorium setup but in those schools it the room was simply labelled "gym."

Sara

financial panther Bob Mackie!