Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Downloads

  • TalkingSimpsons_0302Patreon.mp3

Some files exceed the archive size limit and weren't saved: 1 file. Please note these limits are in place to keep this site running long term, without costing a fortune. You can favorite the creator though, certain milestones increase the limit.

Content

In the show's first truly political episode, we welcome back our pal Matt Christman from Chapo Trap House! We first reflect on the legacy of Reader's Digest and Lisa's skills as a patriotic essayist, then chat about how different things are in the 31 years since this first aired, while also thinking about the connections of Harvard to both Simpsons and many US politicians. Listen now with one informed electorate, baste well with veto power!

Files

Comments

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

Like so much of the show's satire in its early years, it's almost painful how quaint their exaggerations of reality are. This comically evil senator taking boatloads of money from industries to let them do whatever the hell they want is basically just an accepted norm by a lot of people, and it barely even registers as a scandal when it's outed. My main issue with the episode really is that it still has unrealistic hopes about things working out, with people CARING that someone would lose faith in democracy, and actually punishing the greedy senator. I can't really imagine that happening, especially after the Trump presidency where all his conflicts of interest were just waved in our face constantly and no one did anything except complain about it on CNN and other lib news sources. Oh, to be naïve and in 1991... -- P.S. THANK YOU somebody for agreeing that meatloaf is an incredibly boring food. No slander to my mother's cooking, but any time she would cook meatloaf was always a disappointing meal for me as a kid

Lockerus

Benjamin Franklin is the always the go-to choice when you’re looking for a founding father to get an “opinion” on the modern age, but he’s the worst choice. Once he sees Internet porn for the first time, you’ve lost him. Edit: also Taft did not get stuck in the bathtub, despite the prevalence of that myth. He did have to get custom tubs made for his size, but the first mention of Taft “getting stuck” didn’t come up until two decades after his presidency when a White House usher wrote a memoire.

Joe Hodgson

I have come to defend that which is the most succulent of loafs: the meatloaf! A properly prepared meatloaf is not just a lump of ground beef, but more like a traditional Italian meatball made into a meal. Ketchup is not a suitable topping for a good meatloaf. A red, tomato-based sauce is fine, but also something closer to a barbecue sauce is pretty good. Maybe it's my Irish lineage, but I also like just a brown gravy, some mashed potatoes, and a vegetable and I'm good to go. It's a good comfort food in the north east during the winter months, though I probably only have it 2 or 3 times a year. Now I might need to slip one more meatloaf onto the menu before the warm weather truly arrives.

Kat Heagberg

This episode of the podcast gave me a newfound appreciation of this episode of the Simpsons. And my mind is absolutely blown to know that Readers’ Digest was a conservative magazine, but that makes sense that I wouldn’t know, since I haven’t thought of Readers’ Digest since 2003 or so, when I was still a literal child. My family otherwise just subscribed to Newsweek because Time was “too right wing,” (which, agree) and Newsweek was my typical “living room” reading material as a child, but Readers’ Digest, which my grandpa gave my dad a subscription to every year, was designated “bathroom reading,” and as a child with severe IBS, I read it a lot. Mostly just the “life in these United States,” “Humor in Uniform,” and “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” Like especially with those first two, how did I not realize? I also now understand why my parents “hid them” in the bathroom drawer. I thought I was just supposed to read them there. I did learn a lot of very hacky jokes that way, which would often later appear in the form of email forwards from elderly distant cousins.

Alistair Shand aka Bongo

I’m sorry - dissing the U.K. is a step too far please cancel my Patreon 😎 plus what is this loaf of meat you talk of ? Plus for U.K. readers I give you Richard Stilgoe 😲

Alex Forsyth

One time I was in the states I put a $5 into a transit fare machine and got a couple $1 coins back. Even though they were probably the exact same size as Loonies, they looked like those generic tokens you can get stamped with whatever you want(laundry, parking, drink, arcade etc). The most hilarious US $1 coin failure was the initiative the US Mint spearheaded to get businesses to use them where you could get boxes of $500(20 rolls) worth for $500, with free next day shipping, and you could pay with a credit card. A bunch of people maxed out their credit cards ordering the coins. Then immediately returned them to the bank, paid off their credit card and repeated to rack up just tons of air miles. One person managed to cycle through $2.4 Million worth of coins before the program ended. Government ended up out who knows how much in shipping and credit card fees and not a single coin ever ended up in circulation.

Brandon

This episode prompted me to find Ted Cruz's Simpsons impressions from 2016, and wow, that is a truly cursed video. I don't think the man understands what an impression is.

Eli Hernandez

To me, the Name Dolores Montenegro seemed like a mashup of 2 actresses from Mexican Cinema. Dolores Del Río and Sasha Montenegro.

Parker Thompson

I really like that this is an anti 'take that Lisa's beliefs' episode. She didn't win the contest but she did get Bob Arnold arrested and got support from Bart, and Trong and even Mark Russel. That's a way bigger win than would ever get after like season 4 or so. Initially I had the same thought that it was weird to bribe a random representative for logging rights but the fact that the F.B.I. sting is about drilling for oil in Mt. Rushmoore makes me thing he must be involved in some committee for National Parks. One last thing. I'm so glad we don't have dollar coins! Coins are awful! They are way less convenient than bills. If I could get rid of the quarter I would

'Intrepid' Girl 'Reporter'

I moved to Spain from the Bay Area a few months ago and since then I've only been consuming media in Spanish since I'm trying to reach fluency. The one exception I've made is for the Talking Simpsons network — hope you feel very honored by that 🙃 — but I've been watching the Simpsons episodes you cover each week in Castellano/European Spanish, and there have been some interesting localization differences I've noticed, including a great one in this episode. In the Castellano version of the episode, when the old-fashioned newsboy is announcing the headline about Bob Arnold getting arrested at 20:24, he says "Republicano corrupto ha sido detenido," which literally means "Corrupt Republican has been arrested." I was pretty surprised when I heard that since I didn't think the original version specified Arnold's party, so I listened to that part again in English, where the newsboy says "Feds nab rotten rep." I'm guessing that whoever did the Castellano localization heard the word "rep" and thought it was short for "Republican" rather than "representative." Either that, or they hated Republicans (don't we all) and wanted to get a slight in. I checked the Latin American Spanish version to see if they had the same translation, but that one just called Arnold a rotten/corrupt politician. Unlike the European Spanish version, though, the LatAm version has Arnold converting to Buddhism rather than becoming a born-again Christian — maybe they thought that would go over better in the many highly-religious Central and South American countries. Other differences: the Castellano version mixes up the names of the judges — they call Wilson DeFarge the ex-Redskins player and Alonzo Flowers the perennial candidate — and the LatAm voice for Truong is pretty racist.

Michael Branson

Hey, just curious if Henry ever opened his Simpsons machine. I just got it on sale this weekend and the surprise is Simpsons bowling. It’s fun with people and has some fun Simpsons quotes I’ve not heard before. The actual arcade game is great also and super happy to have it next to my turtles machine.

glowstickjuice

Meatloaf can be good, but if you're using ketchup as the sauce, you messed up. I swear by Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce. It compliments the meat more, and offers more flavor. Throwing in some onions makes a difference too. For 25 years I assumed meatloaf was gross because everyone said so. Then I had my ex's meatloaf and got confused. It was really good. Just switch out the ketchup for BBQ sauce and add some veggies to the loaf and you got something that isn't a boring slab of meat.

nalem

Did anyone else read: "We the purple?' What the hell was that?" like this? Since it follows the judge expecting Lisa plagiarized/stole from her dad, when the judge walks away, it seemed like she ignored the actual plagiarism going on. When the dad says "We the purple" it could be read as him being annoyed he misread the essay HE wrote for his kid. :)