Homer's Night Out - Donuts on the Couch: Growing Up on Evergreen Terrace S1E10

In “Homer’s Night Out,” Bart’s new spy camera captures Homer at a bachelor party—and turns one bad decision into Springfield’s hottest piece of pre-internet viral content. Andrew and Thom discuss marriage, trust, objectification, and the episode’s surprisingly thoughtful message about how boys learn to view women. Along the way, they revisit darkrooms, seafood-related trauma, Burns’ admiration of Homer’s “animal magnetism,” and the questionable parenting choice of taking your ten-year-old to a strip club in search of a life lesson. It all leads to Homer delivering a genuinely heartfelt message about respect—just before Bart tries to break up the reconciliation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Grab a donut and have a seat on the couch. Welcome to Donuts on the Couch, growing up on Evergreen Terrace, yet another Simpsons Rewatch Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Alright, yeah. So uh for those of you just joining us, we are just talking a little off-screen. Andrew is telling me how handsome I am, and uh that's how we always start. Yeah. The feeling is musical. Here we are for another episode of Donuts on the Couch growing up on Evergreen Terrace.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Evergreen Terrace.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Our uh our Simpsons Rewatch podcast for those that are just maybe joining us for the first time, where we kind of look at the episodes uh from a couple different angles, uh, thinking about how we responded to them as kids and how we see them now differently as adults. And I think this episode that we're gonna talk about today, season one, episode 10 of Homer's Night Out, definitely highlights the discrepancy that happens there.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

See, it's a lot of fun, uh a lot of fun things in this episode. Second straight episode where we're dealing with some Homer and Marge marital issues. Marital issues. Kind of exploring what's allowed in a marriage and um what's not allowed, both uh last time with Life in the Fast Lane and tonight with this episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Homer's night out. Yeah. I mean, well, I guess like my first reaction is that like as a kid, like I had no idea these episodes were about uh adults' relationships. Like like even like the like storyline of that like just went completely over my head and like I was so focused on like Bart's hijinks and like what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

And the and the spy camera. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so cool that it got out of the mail and catalog. Like, what a great, great thing. And it's tiny, so it's like really like really spying purposes. Yeah, like spy movies and even watching James Bond movies as a kid. You know, I never uh really understood the adult relationships. I always wanted to see all the cool gadgets and all the all the fun spying and secrets they find.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Well, I think that's that's sort of the other line of like you know, kids sort of peering over the fence at like the adult world. Um, and and we've kind of alluded to this before. I think it is one one of our episodes that we had to discard due to technical issues, but you know, really recognizing that like even in the same like household, kids and adults live in completely different worlds, like we completely understand different things about what's going on. 100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah, and um and this this episode is fun. I thought it was kind of fun. Um all right.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Well, let's start off from the beginning. So we had a f a full introduction this time, uh, you know, no nothing cut off. Um in the chalkboard gag is uh I will not call my teacher hotcakes.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Which is hilarious because I don't, you know, as a 10-year-old watching this, I don't think I fully got that. Um but and like I want to know how did Bart say this? Like, sure thing, hotcakes, you know, like or like you know, like how and um I mean to say that to Miss Krebopel seems wild to me. She's not a hot cake to you. Uh I don't know. I don't know, maybe, you know. Um she's a single woman as we uh as we get. I cannot wait till we get to the episode where uh Homer starts writing her letters um from Woodrow Wilson.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

It's one of my all-time favorites.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So that's that's coming. We still got a little bit of time before we get there, but yeah, I mean I I think this one, this is like one of the few times where I think the chalkboard gag really does tie into the episode um about like objectifying women, particularly your female teacher.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Right, right. Yeah, no, it definitely um and this was the first yeah, so it's the first one that ties in with the episode, and it's the first one that kind of goes a little bit deeper instead of you know, I won't skateboard in the halls, I won't, you know, um, I won't waste chalk. All of them have seemed kind of bland so far. And we've had a couple episodes where there hasn't even been a chalkboard gag. And this one is kind of oh, yep, Bart got in trouble here. Yep, we're he referred to the teacher in an inappropriate way and needs to you know pay for it here.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

It crossed the line, yeah, clearly. For sure, for sure. So so then the couch gag was a repeat. It's a repeat from episode three of Homer's Odyssey, uh, where the sides of the couch are popping off once the family sort of arrives on the couch.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Right. The side table goes gets launched off screen, and you know, it's and they just sit there like, oh you know, like oh I would be dumbfounded if that happened.

unknown 4:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

So um, yeah, and as we do with every episode, uh let's let's hear the first lines of the episode, Andrew.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

This is your forte here. Uh yeah, I always find this part so interesting. But uh, you know, this starts out with Marge is sort of humming and brushing her teeth, right? And and she says, uh, so how was the office birthday party? Which I think is so funny, like uh how much work they have to put into that sentence to really describe like uh what was going on and like what the conversation is, uh just to bring it up to the here and now to be able to get into this. But you know, clearly the cleverness of the writing is what I'm alluding to there.

unknown 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

And it seems like such an unnatural way to start, you know. Like you would know you like, you know, when we were roommates in college and you were going to a party or something, I would know where you're going just because we live in the in the same area. I wouldn't the next day. Andrew, how was that birthday party that you went to?

SPEAKER_01 5:19

It's very uh the office. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Like, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Uh but Homer responds that it was delightful, and uh, he's talking about the cake. You know, that was really the thing that caught his eye. Hey, you know, we like a good cake, so we do. In fact, for this uh episode, episode 10, I have my first donut that I'll consume on camera here for donuts on the couch.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Oh, wow, wow. I don't have a I don't have a donut here, but I still have the Blinky 3D printed blinky, um, which we know in a later episode, Blinky does get consumed, admitted so I don't know if I want to eat this 3D printing filament, but you can chew on it anyways.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Um talking more about the party and uh Homer's assistant. We didn't know that Homer had an assistant at this point, Eugene Fisk.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Um he's also the head of safety, but he's also just kind of some random dude in sector 7G. You know, I that's right. But yeah, he has an assistant, Eugene Fisk.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Eugene Fisk didn't realize the punch was spiked at the party, uh, and ended up making some moves on a girl in uh valve maintenance.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Some valve maintenance, right? Some girl in valve maintenance, and and Homer has to point out, you know, because Marge is immediately, oh, does she does he like this woman? You know, like thinking very uh nicely about it. Um and Homer has to stick it to her. No, I think she's got her eye on me. Which, you know, is one of those things. If we're think if we're thinking about this chronologically, the last last episode, Marge, you know, was with the bullying instructor, kind of, you know, so maybe he's digging at her a little bit and saying, Well, you know, some people look at me sometimes too, you know. Um, I mean, he's a father of three homeowners, got a full-time job.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

He's that's a catch. Yeah, uh I think so. Yeah, stability.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Yeah, yeah, he's a he's a regular dude, you know? People love it.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

He's a regular dude, yeah. Well, and and that's the other thing that in this scene is he hops on the scale, right? And he's 239 pounds. You know, and he's so distraught about that. I I was trying to uh think about this relative to now, because the average weight in the United States for a man of that age is 199.8 pounds, and that's for like all heights. Um and you know, so 239 pounds actually isn't that large.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

No, it's not. I weigh more than that. Um, I'm much taller, I think, than Homer Spencer. I'm 63, you know. But I could I could definitely lose some lose some weight, but yeah, I definitely weigh more than that.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

But I I imagine when you look down at the scale, you can see the numbers without having to bend forward.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Yeah, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Oh man. So so you know, he characterizes himself as a blimp. Uh, you know, March tries to say, no, you're my cuddly teddy bear, but but but he but he commits to daily exercise, and I think that's one of the funny gags in this episode. And yes, that that's the motion that he does.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Don't strain yourself.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

I love that. There's like the physical gag of that, and like he gives it like three seconds, and then that's it.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Right, right. Um, I I when when and I knew it wasn't this episode, but I immediately you remember the no you you know in the future when um he the episode where he wears the moo moo and he gets way too bad. I imagine the towel rack being a problem there as well, too. But it didn't happen, obviously. This was earlier, but um I was taken back to taken forward, I guess, to that episode um in my mind.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

These things tie in, yeah, absolutely. Allusions to different episodes throughout it all. But um the so as this is going on, Bart's looking at the ads at the back of the comic book, which is you know a popular thing of that time. Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

And he and he, you know, there's a couple, I didn't really write down what the what they were, but he his eyes focus immediately on the spy camera.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah, he's not interested in like the muscle gain supplement or the uh X-ray TV glasses, meaning that when you watch TV, you could see through people's clothes on the TV, which is very funny. Um in a hypno coin, but he it falls for the spy camera. That's what it's like.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Spy camera, yeah, looks pretty cool. Um and he he does it all. He smashes his piggy bank.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yes, which is already taped together.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Right, because it's already been broken before. So this is the second time this poor piggy bank um has has been taken to by a hammer. Uh he he puts his envelope, he puts everything in, I mean, return address, all that stuff, and puts it right into a postage box, and and it's on its way. And then we get to is that one that goes right to six months later?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

It gets to six months later, yes. And and basically we're now repeating this bathroom scene, which is which is really funny because Homer gets on the scale again, it's also still 239 pounds. Right. Well, he's been doing his daily workhouse, Andrew.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

We can only assume he's doing shuffling his arms.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

No, I he completely forgets about it because he recommits at this point. Like, I need to exercise daily, and he starts doing that same hard movement. No, no.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

That's natural. We all hit our points where like, you know what, I'm gonna really buckle down now, and we don't.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Well, I mean, there's there's there's ways to do it. Uh you gotta go slow, you can't do too much all at once, because that's that's usually the trap people fall into when they want to get fit, is you know, I'm gonna change all my diet and I'm gonna work out really hard, and like that just doesn't work. It changes too much at once. Yeah. Uh a good book on that, uh, and how to make some changes is actually James Clear's Atomic Habits. I don't know if you've ever read that, Tom.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

It's uh I have read it actually.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, I read it I think last year.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah, it's a good one. It is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, I I do enjoy that about like these little incremental changes you can make as you're trying to be change some of your behaviors.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So yeah, no, I I recommend it as well. It's how I got going to doing these podcasts, you know. Just hey, let's try it out. Let's try it once a week. Now I'm doing them every day. So now now Tom lives in the podcast world. Got my x-ray glasses on.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Oh so uh you know, Marge and Homer are talking again. Now they're talking about how Eugene Fisk is getting married. Uh supervisor. Yeah, yes, and he's also now the supervisor. Um there's a lot, there's a lot of story in that six months.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

He goes, not not only like he did get bumped up from coworker, he gets bumped up to probably the same level and then bumped up as a supervisor. But Homer's just still thinking about maybe losing a little losing a few pounds.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Reconsidering, yes. So so he mentions that they're gonna have a party for him. Um Marge is worried that it's a stag party, and but Homer explains, no, it's gonna be classy.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

And he mentions that he's marrying some some girl from Valve, uh from from the Valve inspection. Valve inspection. Yeah, so it's the same woman. It's great.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Uh maybe it's the same woman.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

I think it's the same woman, Andrew. I don't know how I don't know how many women are in valve inspection, but you're right. There could be plenty. It could be, you know, it could be, I don't know. We don't know, but they mention it specifically, so I think it's the same person.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

I would I would imagine, okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Six months. This is pretty quick. This is I I need a little bit more backstory on Eugene. I'm on maybe rushing into just some decisions here.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Well, I think it's funny that like there's one of these like discrepancies in the adult world and the child world where like so much of this adult world changes in six months. Um, but Bart's been waiting forever for the last six months for this package to come in.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yes, yes. Um, yeah, and and and the response from the male lady is um hilarious. Where's my spy camera? Where's my spy camera? Where's my spy camera? She's like every single day, she's screaming right back at him, where's my spy camera? And finally just shoves it at him. Here, here's your spy camera. And then this yeah, and then Bart is just like, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Thank you, thank you, ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Yeah, thank you, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

So nice, so polite. As they're waiting for um the male, as as Bart and Lisa are watching TV, there's the joke that like I incorporated into my mind, probably on this first viewing, about how there's the knock on the door, and Bart says, Oh, it's the female man. Um and Lisa corrects that it's the female carrier. Uh, but that definitely became part of my my vocabulary. A female man, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah, and yeah, and you know, and that was kind of a that was kind of a thing, I feel like, you know, because you'd say fireman, but you wouldn't really wouldn't say firewoman. You'd maybe you'd say firefighter. I don't know. I mean firefighters, fire person? Yeah, I don't know. They're all they all work great.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

But it's but it's part of like the yeah, part of this overarching story about like women and men and the different dynamics there, and I think that's an important piece to all of this. So it's a good sort of throwaway gag in that, but I I thought it was funny. So he gets the little camera, takes a picture of himself, uh, he sneaks in to take a picture of Homer exercising in the bathroom, which is funny because we get to see Homer's perspective, and I think it's the first time they actually use that where they use a first person perspective.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Oh, interesting. Yeah, I don't think I yeah, I mean it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just see him going like up and down in like the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

She's doing his like his like arm lifts and everything. Um and of course he takes a picture. Then he goes and takes a picture of uh his mother. Um she's shivering her armpits, you know. And um and but the great mom she is, she kind of just says, Oh, get out of here. Go take some pictures of some wildlife. That's what that's a great suggestion. It is, yeah. And and what does Bart do? He goes and finds some wildlife. That's right. A run over dead squirrel. Find some roadkill to take a photo of.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Um again, as as a kid, like that's that's the uh wildlife you can sort of get a hold of and make sense of.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yes, yes. And then and then Bart gets a little racier. Um as he then uh I think Lisa walks in on him, right? He's taking a picture of his own rear end. You know, it's like, oh, okay. And he denies it. He's like, no, it wasn't. No, I wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Uh so so um Marge tells them that they need to sort of get they need to dress up because they're going out to dinner, because it's just four of them. They're going to the rusty barnacle.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yes, and Bart quickly realizes that only four, who got off the hook? You know what I mean? Who got out of this? Um, but you know, and she obviously says that it's that it's Homer. And um she's off to the Rusty Barnacle. She loves the Rusty Barnacle. We've we've mentioned the Rusty Barnacle several times now.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Already, yes. The family loves it for the most part. I think the kids don't necessarily uh Lisa likes it. She likes the shrimp. Um, but Bart would rather get a hamburger at Grusty's. So I mean, fair. Me too. Yeah, yeah. So it's a different, yeah, different taste. That's okay. But you know, they this is also where they start to show that there's also something else going on at the Rusty Barnacle. There's a smoke-filled room where the men are drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Um, and it's the stag party. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

And Eugene Fist's father is there talking um about how much he loves his son and all these great things, and remembering um, you know, playing catch as a boy and the you know, Eugene giving his father his baseball glove and uh all you know, all this like tearful thing, and Uris just panel pans over to Homer, Lenny and Carl, and I believe this is the first time we see Carl. Lenny and Carl, you know, are gonna become that dynamic duo. And um they're just bored. They're like, what is all this nonsense?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Everyone's bored, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

I mean, and without giving specifics on people, we've all been to one of these things where you know we're hearing these stories and we're just like, okay, okay, whether it's a wedding, a bachelor party, some sort, you know, uh, you know, any place where we're not directly involved, we're just kind of a added person. You know, and and and there are certainly the the opposite as well. You go to these places and you hear these stories, you're like, wow, this is a great storyteller as someone speaking. This is great. Um, this is I'm I'm invested here, this is awesome. But then sometimes it's like, oh, can we wrap this up? Let's wrap this up, you know. Probably some maybe some people listen to our podcast right now. Like, let's go, guys.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Oh, they're waiting for the entertainment to get here, too. Yes, yes. Oh man. Uh yeah. So that was and that was Carl's line, you know, about you know, let entertainments come and sort of nudging at that. They do sort of a pan back and forth between the family at the restaurant ordering and Bardoard's a squid platter, right? Um and then Marge politely asks the waiter, who's dressed up as a pirate with an eye patch, uh, if he could ask the party to quiet down that's going on.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Uh and he and he replies, aye aye, you know?

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, yeah. But he goes right in, he goes right into Danny Jones's locker, which is very funny. Um, and as soon as he goes in and says, Can you keep it down? Homer says, Hey, shut up. Shut up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

And that was it.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

This the door shuts, and then he's just like I I love how like low-key that was. And like, you know, even the tone of voice that he used, hey, shut up. Like it's I think that's really good. I think that's the sort of joke that wouldn't land like in later seasons. Like it's just a little too subtle. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah, it it's you know, I I laugh. I laughed when I heard that. So it's like, oh, he's he's basically just telling this guy, go away. Like, we're in the back of the party. Leave us alone. We paid for this room, get out of here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

But just hey, shut up. Hey, shut up. Yeah. So um then they get back to the table and the uh food comes out and and uh Bart gets his squid platter with extra tentacles. Uh didn't know what to expect. I I remember that like site gag of the um the plate coming out and thinking like how gross that is. I'm like, oh no, I would also regret that. Uh but no, I love squid.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yeah, yeah, of course. And extra tentacles. Uh Bart obviously he turns green, which is a little uh little fun, little uh animated visual there. Uh but also they he he rearranges, he does another gag, it's almost like almost like a chalk gag kind of in the middle of the episode where he they have a cod platter, number one, 495. That's that's a deal. Yeah. If you saw cod platter now for 495, you probably wouldn't buy it because you're like, that's way too cheap. What is that actually? What what what am I eating here? But now, oh, but back then, whoo so but he changes cod platter into cold pet rat.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Which is great. Uh yeah, it is funny uh that they do that rearranging of the sign. I don't think they do that a lot in in The Simpsons. Uh Captain Underpants, they do that a lot in that book series. Yes, yes, they do.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Uh great book series, great movie series. Um there's only one. I don't know. I love Captain Underpants. I used to read them in college. I don't know if you remember that. Um, I had some of those in college. Um they're they're great. I like the flip pages. You know, you flip them and they you know that's fun.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

I mean, my kids get those books out of the library all the time, and those pages are already torn out almost every time.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll know what to send them for their birthday.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

There you go. Uh so um they go back to the stag party uh and they introduce Princess Cashmere. Uh it is Mo's voice that's introducing her, but we don't see Mo in the party.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Well, so it's Mo's it's Mo's voice, but it's but Lenny is speaking. And I and I looked this up. I guess uh Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer switched their roles. They for this episode, one of them is playing Carl and one of them's playing Lenny. And this is the only, I forget which way it is, but this is the only episode where they were were reversed. Because yes, it does sound like Mo, and then Carl sounds like Lenny when he speaks later. And they switched it and kind of refined. I mean, these voice actors are incredible the way they can change their voice on a dime and and make these subtle changes in into how they speak.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Become completely different characters. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

I saw um I saw something with Hank Azari the the other day, some reel or whatever, and he was talking, and I could hear Chief Wiggum. Yeah, yeah. It was it wasn't exactly, but I could I was like, This is that Chief like is he doing Chief Wiggum? No, he's just talking.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Like have you ever seen? The clips of him doing it where he like just goes through all the different characters.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Yeah. And it's a it's a talent, man. I I It really is, yeah. I can't really under I mean they just like and then you make it more nasally, and then you do this, and then you make it like this. And no him, you know, and this is like, oh, that's pretty good, Tom. I'm impressed by your range there. No, come on, come on.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

But I'm glad you didn't like move into like uh either female or ethnic variant or anything. No, no, no. Good job. Keep it a class.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah, no, and so but then they switched after this episode and they stayed. Then those are the voices we now stay up.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I guess there's a lot of refinement going on in this early season, just as going on here on Donuts on the Couch. We're sort of finding our way and figuring it out and finding our voices, uh, so to speak. But um, I I like how the dad at the stag party just comments that we're in hell. He hates that this is going on, as any dad at a stag party was. So, you know, clearly there's like a lot of discomfort actually, even in the room of that this woman dancing, and she gets up on the table and and then she calls Homer up, basically.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Right, and Homer, you know, like he's he's trying to keep the party going, and you know, she's asking him to dance.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

He says, All right, like let's go over. Uh he kind of gets pushed into it. It's not that he like came in seeking this, is sort of my interpretation of it.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yeah, and I and I will say, not you know, not that you know this could this could be violating um the sanctity of his marriage with his wife, you know. Uh we know last week Homer, I mean Marge was with was with uh Jacques in in ways that she should probably shouldn't have been, and there actually was touching and everything. Homer's Homer's dancing next to this woman.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Uh more or less. He does put one dollar bill into her uh that's true. That is true. He does.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Um yes, but it's you know, he's not it's the dancing is very much I'm I'm right here. Yeah, I'm here, I'm here.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But you know, Bart, Bart, who had gone to the bathroom, hears the commotion and peeks his head in and decides he's gonna take a picture. Because he's got a spy camera. Small enough that he can always have it with it.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Did you catch the names on the bathrooms um when Bart comes out of the out of the bathroom?

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Buoys and gulls.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Buoys and gulls, yes. Which I thought that was great, very appropriate for a pirate-themed restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah, yes. That whole the whole restaurant is well done. Uh the rusty barnacle. I would eat there if I could.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Sounds great. Yeah, especially with great prices on the cod platter.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Exactly. So so here's a commercial break, and then it it pan or it cuts to um them in the dark room. The kids are there. Martin's uh opening up the meeting of the future photographers of America.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Uh, and our newest member, Bart Simpson's Bart Simpson, yes. I love it. Bart's getting involved in school, he's doing an extracurricular activity that's not required. This is great. That's always that's why I think of it as a dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like, oh, look, we're getting involved. Uh huh. Would you have thought of it that way as a kid? No, I was probably like, why is Bart hanging out with these nerds?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

He's too cool for this. Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

But it's an actual dark room way back when they actually have to develop the film. Um, not everything's digital yet. And yes, and Martin helps, you know, get this uh get this photo developed of Homer and it's just cashmere. And and the kids love it. This is great. This is better than like this is better than like the underwear section of a 1990s Sears catalog or something that we would, you know, well it's right up there. Like, oh my goodness, like, look at this. You know, it's something they didn't see, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Yeah, it was it was clearly very exciting for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Exciting. And then I like how it uh it it becomes a game of like, well, no, I can't give this to anyone. So he gives it to Milhouse. And then Milhouse um gives it to a bald kid who I couldn't find that this kid's name.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Um I I was upset because we've seen him before. He's uh he's just a he's like a bald kid or like shaved. Maybe it's like a whiffle.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Little spikes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yeah. Um and then Bart gives it to another friend who I looked up. That's Lewis.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

That's Lewis, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, yeah. So and so it becomes what it becomes like a secret, like, okay, you can have one. But this this uh this five or ten cent copy machine is going crazy at the school, and every kid has a copy. And it ends up where the parents, all the parents have a copy too.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, yeah. Well, uh one of the jokes in that is the the five cent copies, but they it only accepts dimes, so you always have to make two. But anyway, but yeah, it starts getting passed around. Um, one of the kids ends up getting scolded by his dad, like, how dare you have this? But then as soon as the kid goes away, he's like chuckling. I can't wait to show my buddies this, and then and then he faxes it.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Yes, yes. I mean, we're faxing uh photos of Princess Kashmir and Homer to our friends, and and if one of the guys is on the phone and sees it, and he's like, Oh, the boss is coming, and some guy comes out and you don't get to see his face, but it looks like Lionel Hutz.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Yeah, I immediately was like, Is that Lionel Hutz?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Really Lionel Hutz.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

But maybe it's just you know, some man in a suit. But I thought because you don't see his face at all, he just because he turns around. Uh but yeah, everyone in town, all of a sudden, everyone knows who Homer is because of this.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

And Reverend Lovejoy sees it.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Yeah, right, yeah. We were seeing we've seen Lovejoy, uh, we saw Helen Lovejoy in the last episode. Now we're seeing Reverend Lovejoy here. Um, and then Homer gets noticed at the quickie mart. Yeah. Uh you know, a poo is like, Do I know you're from somewhere? And he's like familiar, yeah. Yeah no, like not that he hasn't been going to this store whenever he needs some tough beer.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

So um, and then all these people are like, hey man, and they're dancing. Yeah, they're dancing.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Do do do and Homer's just eating it up.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

He's like, Oh, this is great. And then some women drive up in a in a car and they kind of are dancing, and he's like, Yeah, still got it.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

I still got it, yeah. I I get that feeling, yeah. You know, kind of wanting to think, like, oh my uh, and he he just uh he's kind of caught up in it, but um, but the other thing that's happening within this montage is that Marge sees this picture at the gym.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Yes, yes, she's doing yoga or something. Uh it's clearly a room. They're all they've all got towels or mats and stuff, and um, yeah, and uh she and Homer walks into a buzzsaw here. Now, this is why you know a lot of a lot of people, a lot of men, when they come home from work, wherever they're at in life, they'll sit in the car for a little bit. They have the I I do it, I do it, I live by myself. I I still do it. I sit in the car, all right, I'm home. I'm almost ready to go in. You know, I just you I just need that five minutes to just decompress. Maybe I'm listening to a song on the radio, maybe I'm listening to a segment segment I want to finish, maybe I just turn it off. I just want to be at peace with my thoughts before I go get the mail, come into the house, whatever. Uh, but Homer is happy and he's walking right into his house, and it is wild how it is like boom, right in the right in his face, that photo. And he's like, Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Oh, and and they immediately get in uh well, uh Bart recognizes the picture and says, Oh, my photo.

unknown 29:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

And then it gets into a why you little, why you big, and all of a sudden everybody's strangling everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Right, right, which is uh which I love. It's you know, the strangling gag. It's kind of it's kind of a visual representation of the frustration that the other people are seeing and whatever.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Um I'd like to think that it's not meant to be taken literally.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Yeah, I I think it's uh agreed.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Agreed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Now, as a as an eight, 10-year-old watching this, absolutely all these they're all strangling each other. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

They're so mad. Yeah. But Homer gets kicked out of the house, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah, yeah, which is uh, you know, with dealing with what we dealt with last episode, the Marge is making a pretty hard line here, you know. Get out of the house, you know, you're teaching Mars son a poor lesson on of how you're trying to treat women, uh throws a suitcase at him and hands him a bunch of tissues. Yeah. Because he'll need them, because she certainly does too.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

So then they're both crying then at that point. And you know, I I think that was sort of a point I probably missed as a younger kid. The severity of that and what they're going through and the complexity of it.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Yeah. So whenever Homer has these types of issues or sad things in life, where does he end up? Moe's ends up at Moe's, yeah. And it's ladies' night at Mo's. And it's the hottest latest night, ladies' night they've had in a long time. And as they pan out, that there's three people at the bar. Um, which we've seen Moe's be pretty populated before. So this is an interesting little joke as to, you know, maybe the writer's deciding, well, maybe Moe's should kind of be like a really downer place.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

A little bit more dank. Yeah. I I like the sign, is that ladies' night, uh, unescorted ladies drink free.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Which it's it's an interesting uh strategy. Yeah, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 31:35

I wouldn't want to be in there, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

So but but it makes sense because there's not many people there. So you know, it was a swing and a miss for Mo in his advertising. In his marketing, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

You know, I think I like how uh Mo has the picture framed up on the bar of Homer.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Um Yeah, and you know, Homer's talking about staying the night at a hotel, and Barney, of course, is the good friend and invites him over because he doesn't want to stay in some dank, gross hotel, and and Barney's apartment is disgusting.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

A dank, gross apartment, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I do like how he offers him uh food. He's like, well, if you're hungry, there's a half open beer in the fridge.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

And then Barney just leaves. He's going out because there's a party going on in the apartment complex.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

Yeah, you know, doesn't invite Homer, just see you later.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

So oh the the other the other gag in that is uh when Homer's looking out uh into the city and he says, See, that's my house and the light's on. And and Barney just immediately calls Marge.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Right. Like, hey, Homer's not made of money, turn the porch light off. And Marge has no idea who it is. You know, back then we didn't have caller ID on all these things. Yeah, who is this? Oh hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Uh absolutely hilarious. I don't know if I found that line particularly funny as a child, but as an adult, I thought that was very funny.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Right. Could you imagine like dealing with you know having a friend over that's going through a divorce or whatever, and you just randomly decide to call their spouse and yell at them for something like leaving a light on.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yeah, I I think that wouldn't go over well, especially in these collar ID days. Right. Uh so then the next their um breakfast table with Marge and the kids, and it's really quiet, and they're sort of kids are whispering, I wonder when dad's coming home.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Um it's tense. Yeah, it is. You can the kids always feel it, you know, going through, you know, divorce and separation, um, even if it's just a part-time thing like this. It's uh they don't really know what's going on. Right. It's uncertainty, it's you know, but but in in that moment when they're whispering, you know, Bart does wish his dad good luck. Yeah. You know, good luck talking to mom, man. Like, and Homer is kind of he responds to that. He's kind of like, Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes, I know that. Um he kind of stand, you know, stands in the hallway and he's just like, Hi, Marge. Like it's uh yeah, it's a little tough, a little tough to see.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

It is, it is, it is. I mean, clearly there's a lot of tension here, but there's the other dynamic still, um, where Homer's dealing with the repercussions, repercussions of this, even at work, uh, where Burns calls them in, uh, confronts them that this is a family nuclear power plant, and it turns out half the people we serve are women.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Right, right. Well, and we know it's a family uh power plant because he's a ha he's had the family cookout, you know. That's right. Uh the annual annual family cookout. And I do like, though, how Burns gives kind of the very HR response with Smithers there, you know. Smithers in the room. You know, and then and then it's like, Smithers, you can leave, you know. And and then there's that um, you know, where he says to Homer, you know, I've lived a very solitary life, I've never had really luck with the women. How do you do it? You know? Like this photo of him dancing is like some magical, oh, he's this ladies' man that is so impressive. He can teach me. Right. He can teach me how to like talk to women, and so I'll be able to dance with Princess Cashmere, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Oh, and and the advice is uh that that Homer gives to Mr. Burns is to wind them, dine them, give them flowers, like poetry. And write them left poetry, yeah. So he's just you know, realize, oh, it's simple things.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

Um and just the the way that Burns talks, uh the the the two quotes really made me laugh. Uh you know, he when when he's upset, when he's upset with Smithers in there, he's he refers to Homer as an oversexed orangutan in heat. In heat. Yes. Um but then when Smithers is gone, he's like, You've got you've got something, Simpson, that I don't have. I call it animal magnetismo. It's like, what is uh which is just I don't know, it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Like both are uh somewhat dehumanizing uh components of it, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:13

For sure, yeah, yeah. He's you know, he notices this animalistic behavior in Homer, um, which I mean envies, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that he envies, you know. Um and I guess that comes with living a long solitary life, you know. Um never taking hundreds of hundreds of years, yeah. Right, yeah. At this point, Monty Burns is probably at least 138. So Yeah, something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

So so quietly uh comes back to the house again, uh asks Marge if she's still mad, pleading for forgiveness. And you know, she she's still mad, and you know, she's even mad that he's apologizing because he doesn't really know why he's apologizing.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Right, right. And and and his apology, I didn't write it down, but it's something of along the lines of like, I'm a I'm I apologize because my clothes aren't clean and I'm hungry. Because of this, and he doesn't know really why or what he did wrong. Um but he knows she's upset and he knows that he's suffered because of this and just wants to fix things and get things back to normal. Right. He's a simple man.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Right. So um, but yeah. She points out you taught Bart a bad lesson, and and you know, I she wanted Bart to see him apologize to the woman that he sort of objectified in this moment.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Yes, and she refers to this woman, Princess Kashmir, um, as an exotic belly person. Which is I think that's just like a safe for TV.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

I think so, yeah. They refer to her belly later, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Kind of a funny thing, like because she's showing her belly, you know. Um, you know, I don't I don't know what if this was real life, what type of photo would have been taken or whatever, or what would have been showing. But for but for Fox in 1990, the belly was the album, yeah. Yeah, was the one that they could they could show and she would be a belly dancer. So but so Homer does. He takes Barton's. Tries to track her down. He does what any good father would do, and he takes Bart late at night to all of these strip clubs to try to find Princess Cashmere, because apparently she works in all of them in town. And there's a lot of them in town.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Yeah, starting with uh Florence of Arabia was the first stop.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Yes, yes. Uh one of them was Foxy Boxing, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

That's right, Foxy Boxing. Uh Girlesque, uh, where they were having the wet t-shirt contest. Yes. Oh, this is another joke that definitely didn't uh land for me as a kid when uh he's talking to one of the the like bouncers, and he's saying, I'm trying to teach my son here about treating women as objects, and the bouncer's just like, Oh yeah, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Yeah, like yeah, that's what we do here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

I I definitely did not uh get that or see any humor in that. Um I think it's just like so over the top that that it's funny to me now.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

I don't I don't agree with it. No, no, we're not advocating for that, but it's funny in this in this sense. Uh but they acknowledge it. That's so straightforward. Yes, that's what we do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

So they eventually do find Princess Kashmir. Yeah, at the Sapphire Lounge. At the Sapphire Lounge, and we find out that her name is Shauna Tifton. Yes. And uh, you know, and Homer's asks, you know, tell my boy something about yourself. And she kind of almost reads like what would be like a dating profile.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Well dating profile, or I uh the other thing I thought of was like um like a centerfold sort of profile, the thing that they would do in those magazines.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Yeah, like they like stuff that she has written down for yeah, you're right, for like uh for a magazine or something. Yeah, her pet peeves are rude people, she enjoys silk sheets and warm fireplace, you know.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Uh and so so the the show is starting essentially, and and her cage is now raising, uh, and she's trying to get rid of Homer because you know the show's about to start, her boss is gonna be mad. Uh, he's basically yeah, he's dangling and she's stomping on his fingers.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Right. No, you know, just get out of here. Um, and of course, you we need to have the the physical comedy in this episode, and he falls from the thing. Right as the thing is opened up, he you know, basically ruins the show to some guy singing.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Gulliver Dark is singing. Yes, is that his name?

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Gulliver Dark. Um and is immediately he's immediately annoyed, but then realizes, oh, this is Homer Simpson.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Yes, the big this this is a big character right now in their in their culture. Um he's singing the song I Could Love a Million Girls. Uh, and I I didn't know immediately where that came from, so I was looking into that. Um, you know, one of the more recent versions was in 1981 uh for the movie Ragtime, and it was uh sort of uh performed by Randy Newman, but uh Ragtime itself was actually in reference to uh when the song was used in 1906 in the musical review Man Mademoiselle Champagne. Um and and this show was notorious because this song was playing uh at a at the Madison Square Garden when they're doing a performance of this, when uh the architect Stanford White uh was murdered by Harry Thaw, who's the son of a wealthy businessman while the song was happening, right? Uh and it was dubbed the trial of the century uh when this happened in 1906.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Interesting. And and while we know and so fast fast forward just a tiny bit in this scene, we know that Monty Burns is there. Um he was probably enjoying this song because he probably heard it as a boy back in 1906 and probably remembered the trial of the century. He was probably even at the Madison Square Garden when it happened.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

He may have been.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

I mean, I have to assume he was.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

So so with was the recognition of like who Homer is, uh they basically ask Homer to start dancing. Um, he gets involved in the kick line, and then he's doing the dance that's similar to how he exercises.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Yes, well, he's been training for this all for the last six months.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

At least. But he's again, he's caught up in the moment and like he forgets where he is and gets into it. Uh Smithers and Burns see this, and you know, um Smithers comments that he's a love machine, sir.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

Yes, how does he do it, Smithers? He's a love machine, sir.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

But then Homer sort of comes to his senses, stops the music. Um Burns is saying, Hey, down in front, and we realize that Marge is there.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Yes, uh, you with the you with the big hair down in front.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

But Homer has something to say, and he wants to, you know, give this lesson now about how we can't treat women as mere objects uh with curves that make us crazy.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Right. No, you know, we can't do that, Andrew. That's something that we can't do.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

I and I agree with that. Yeah, and you know, he he's making the point that you know, these are our mothers, our daughters, our aunts, our grandmothers, uh not our nephews. Right. He's just nephews in front of me.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

So then he's like, well, actually, no, sorry. I just you get the get the sense he's just listing off family adjectives in it.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

You know, notes. Exactly. But then all of them in there start crying.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

I know they start showing baby pictures of their children. You know, they want to the uh what is it, Gulliver Dark? He wants to go call his mom, you know. Um it's kind of a good little little ending here, you know.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

And then Homer and Marge sort of run to each other, and uh, you know, and then the the gag that the eight year old me appreciated was uh art trying to shoot people away. Like nobody wants to see my folks kiss. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

So and that and that's that's it. It that's that was the windup. That's pretty much the end of the episode.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

Pretty straightforward uh story from beginning to end. Not a lot of like twists and turns or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

No, yeah, pretty straightforward. Pretty um yeah, I don't know. It was uh I I liked it. It yeah, it got a 7.3 out of 10 on um on IMDb, which is a little low for the first season, but not terrible.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Um yeah, I mean I I enjoy it. I think there's like funny pieces to it. I wonder, um, you know it I think it was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Uh like actually talking and saying these things out loud about you know what sort of came along later in like Me Too movements, things like that, of like, you know, you can't can't just objectify people and treat them like these are everybody's a person.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Right. And especially um, you know, with Homer leaving the home and seeing the kid that the scene with the kids are whispering to them, Hi dad, like how are you? Like almost like they don't want to be seen showing concern for their father who's been kicked out of the home. Um that's pretty that was pretty advanced, um I think for the time. Especially with comedies, you know, you'd see I feel like growing up in the 80s, 90s, and even later, you'd see comedies where you know the dad would do something stupid and they'd just get like a bonk on the head or something. And you know, but it's also right, and then it's all over and then it's not talked about um again. You know, but seeing, you know, seeing this man get kicked out of his home um for something that kind of got blown out of a little bit out of proportion. He did he did cross a line, I'm sure, um, but kind of blew up, and the response was, I think, more inflammatory than it would have been if it was, you know, not it didn't become all this big crazy public knowledge. Um and you see that with Homer, too. He didn't really understand what he did, you know?

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Yeah. Um caught up in the moment. I think another important message is about like communication in this, because you've kind of said a few times about how it crosses a line, but you know, it's never explicitly said in the show that like Homer and Marge have discussed what are the lines of the relationship and what's considered cheating and things like that. Um, because in some relationships that something like that would be completely okay, and in some relationships it's not okay. Um and it's sort of different in each uh pairing or you know.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Yeah, I mean uh that's I mean, that's the beauty of a relationship, right? Yeah whatever your expectations are and your and your uh the person you're in the relationship with's expectations are if they're discussed and talked about it, it can be however it goes.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

That's the thing, you gotta communicate them. If you don't communicate them, then you don't know where the lines are. Right. That's where a lot of troubles come from.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Right. Yeah. So yeah, so I don't know, pretty good, pretty good episode. I think uh next next week we have uh season one, episode eleven. Yes, the crepes of wrath. Bart's gonna head off to France. So that one goes. That one's got a higher rating. Um Okay. Uh that one's a 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb. And then after, you know, then after that, we only have two more seas two more episodes left in season one. In season one, yeah. So I think for us, both of us, homework for the next uh next episode or two is start thinking about um kind of like recap stuff for the full full first season. Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

You know, um do maybe a short episode of something like that where we kind of walk through it.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So um yeah. Well that's slightly.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

I mean, and then after this, there's only what 790 episodes to catch up with?

SPEAKER_02 47:41

I think it's more than that, but uh, because I think we're at 856 currently. Oh really? Yeah, so yeah, I think you're uh undershooting that quite a bit, but that's all right. We'll just um we'll start doing them daily. We'll start uh just ignoring our families and ignoring our responsibilities in life, and we'll just we'll you know, we'll just we will we'll watch them all.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

We're gonna need sponsors if uh that's the case.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Well, start eating that donut, Andrew. You probably don't get the local donut chain done.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

I don't know. I don't know if that's the right the right one, but maybe, maybe. Never know. Uh anyway, so thank you. Yeah, thank you, Tom. Thank you, everybody, for joining us for another episode of Donuts on the Couch Growing Up on Evergreen Terrace.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

Yeah, well, uh, we'll see you guys next time. See you next time. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Thanks for listening to Donuts on the Couch. Growing up on Evergreen Terrace, yet another Simpsons Rewatch podcast.