Talking Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror VIII With Dan Ryckert

I like how in the first line of "Homega Man," Kent reminds us of how pretentious he is by saying "an" before "heroic hippo". Definitely "an Harvard joke"...

Nina C.

Just an FYI about the Far Side/Kansas City connection: The address Dan was writing to was for the Far Side's syndicate (rights licensor/distributor) Adams McMeel Universal. That's why he'd get press kits and whatever random swag they had lying around. Their building is right across the street from my office.

Ron Sterling

Holy Sh*t, listening to this episode brought back a memory of an old nightmare i had. I would have JUST turned eight years old when this episode premiered, and, probably that night, i had a nightmare that I was walking through a garden center and the censorship box with the sword started popping out of shrubs, swinging at me.

Renzuko

I always found it weird that the revised vest of the Gilligan's island theme mentioned Mary Ann by name. Gilligan gets his name in there because he's the main character and Skipper and Professor are called by their job titles, so they make sense as name drops, but Thurston Howll III, Lovey Howell, and Ginger are referred to by descriptors, rather than by name. I guess "The Professor and a farm girl" doesnt sound as good.

Curtis Bostick

I have an old mom (she was born in 1947; I was born in 1985), and she pretty much sang the ...I’da Baked a Cake song EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY CHILDHOOD for some reason, so when I saw “Easy Baked Coven” as a kid, I honestly didn’t realize that this wasn’t a reference everyone would get immediately.

Kat Heagberg

The cutesy angle of "and that's how Halloween began" ruins "Easy Bake Coven" for me

nina matsumoto

Even having seen the Cronenberg version first, it's still a super funny Vincent Price movie

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

To me, Homer running over the Winter brothers in "The Homega Man" feels like a nice companion joke to "Dial Z for Zombie" since Homer does the opposite of what he did there. In Z, Homer shot and killed Ned without realizing he was a zombie, but here, Homer intentionally kills a couple of humans because he thinks they're part of the mutant group. I love it. -- "Easy-Bake Coven" has always been my least favourite segment of this Treehouse of Horror. It's still got some pretty good jokes, and I liked revisiting it, but I think that little bit of aimlessness it has by not being a direct parody/homage to another story does hurt it a little.

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

<a href="https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/homer-simpson-intel-pentium-ad-commercial/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/homer-simpson-intel-pentium-ad-commercial/</a>#gs.Xl1s9Kus After Homer 3D, they wanted a piece of the pie.

Ever had a cake that could slap YOU?

Bob Mackey

Also that cake song slaps

nina matsumoto

Don't poo-poo the ending to The Fly (1958) film; it's a brilliant twist! (SPOILER:) The whole movie focuses on a man-sized human with a fly's head who's slowly losing his intelligence, and you're made to believe the fly and the scientist melded into one being -- until the end of the film, when the horrified inspector discovers a fly with a talking human head (the iconic "help me! help me!" scene). Instead of telling the guy's wife about it, he simply puts it out of its misery with a rock. The body-swap aspect explored in Fly vs. Fly isn't revealed until the end of the story and that's perfect.

nina matsumoto

Something mildly amusing about The Homega Man is that after Homer realizes what happens, he doesn't bother to go home, or else he would have noticed his family was alive. It's funny that "all the things he's ever wanted to do" is...go see a movie, and sing and dance naked in a church,.

Andrew Bouvier

“ The Bible says a lot of things” - is yet another example for me of a Simpson quote Which I used so much it ceased to be a quote and just became something I said.

JR Ralls

Awesome episode! I remember watching this episode when is first came on and my mom laughed at the Little Marge whoosh. I also find it strange that Bart hardly has any lines in Omega Man and has a weird look on his face as if you could predict he has the gun behind him. Even at the end of the short you don't hear him react with the family. Also I watched The Crucible in 11th grade because we were reading it in class. Of course if any sex scenes occurred, they would be fast forwarded on the VHS tape we had in 2003. So looking back at the episode so many references to The Crucible I understood whereas when I was watching this first run it went over my head. The Fly is a favorite of mine! I love the animation of Bart flying around the family. It is so weird but you can tell the animators put a lot of work into that short sequence. As for the peeing part, I personally came to the conclusion that Lisa wasn't on the toilet when Homer attempted to go to the bathroom but while he was talking to Marge before his hand went into the teleporter she had to use the bathroom. It's how I get past the potential grossness of the joke. I love your podcast! You all remind me of when my older sister and I would talk about the TV shows we watch.

Angel

Another great episode. I always forget that the mutant segment is based on Omega Man/I am Legend. I know the title makes it obvious, but the cause of the mutants being a nuke instead of a plague is the thing that throws me. One small sort of correction, the monsters in the novella I am Legend and again in The Last Man on Earth are vampires. In The Omega Man they are albino mutants like in the episode. In the Will Smith movie I am Legend they are “darkseekers” which are basically feral nocturnal zombies. The exact type of monster is inconsistent enough through the various adaptations that zombie is just about as right as vampire at this point.

Brian Hortin