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Hey, what's up everybody welcome back? Thank you for tuning into the
Donuts podcast I am your host a guy. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to share my name
Anyway
Welcome back. I'm so glad that you're here this this one. We're gonna go over episode 2 last week
We we talked about episode 1 the original
Episode of the Simpsons, which is called Simpsons roasting on an open fire and we will get through this
Ladies and gentlemen we will get through the first two seasons, and it will be worth it and we will
live
I can't say that we'll believe that it was worth it
It will be though for real though is there's there's a lot of great stuff in these in these episodes
I like to tease and make fun because it's just
so
Cringy to watch these older episodes, but there's a lot of great stuff and this episode
A lot of amazing things happen, so I hope that you did your homework. I hope you watched it
sometime the last week these episodes
Will air every Wednesday, so
Set a reminder in your phone go watch the episode on Tuesday night
Hour on Wednesday, you know before you go home from work. I mean after you go home from work
Don't pull a homer and
and and follow along and have some great fun with the trivia and
So on so let's get started shall we?
so
Simpsons roasting on an open fire the first episode was great
It set the stage for the series and that's that's terrific
but a lot of changes happen in the second episode which is Bart the genius and
And we're here to talk about them, so
First of all we're gonna do some trivia questions I
Have three trivia questions, which I will answer in the next episode
I have three trivia questions, which I will answer at the end of the podcast and
If you get them right email me let me know I would sure love to hear about it
My email is
shartanpants at gmail.com
That's sh a r t n
Pant s shartanpants at gmail.com
So listen here's the trivia in
Dr. Pryor's office
He's a school psychologist
There are two pictures on his wall on
one side of his office
The picture on the wall is of Albert Einstein
So your question is
Who is the picture who is in the other picture on the opposite wall?
Question number two according to Homer Simpson who invented the light bulb and
Finally the last question. What is Martin's IQ?
Dun dun dun
All right again if you know it email me for real. I want to know if you knew him ahead of time
And if you knew just because you have an amazing memory or if you knew because you just watched it yesterday
Either way you still win wins a win so listen
This is the first episode where we get a chalk a chalkboard gag and a couch gag
And of course both of them have become staples in the show, but like we talked about last week
Neither were in the opening sequence
It just started with them driving down the street so we get the chalkboard gag
You know
And then it goes right into the classroom of the school
And then I'm sure any big fans know sometimes due to time constraints
they would just cut that gag and go right into the show, but
For the most part the the chalkboard gag
You know that first major sequence is in there
So as that changes throughout we will discuss them
Because there are a lot of changes to that opening sequence
There's some minor changes like you know the walls of certain rooms or different colors now
But you know like we'll talk about in a more consequential changes
to that sequence, so it goes through the sequence and
It's kind of this is one of those things kind of hard to watch
Just you know you got Bart on his on a skateboard and
Maggie and and
Marge at the store, and then they're driving home and the
The horn on their on their car is kind of goofy sounding, but it changes eventually
Lisa is very clearly holding a guitar case
And there's more of her in this opening sequence
And that gets cut back a little bit and eventually she's holding a saxophone
Which is great because that's what she plays
And then we get to the couch gag so
the first couch gag is
The family sits and Bart is squeezed off the couch up into the air and out of frame and
then
When the shot goes to the TV
He falls down to the floor again so
Which brings us to some obscure references or fun facts
This is the only time that the couch gag visually continues into the closing shot of the TV
it's the only time that ever happens in the show and
this couch gag
Was reused in the telltale head
so we'll come upon that again, I wonder
It's the only time it's ever used so I wonder if in the telltale head Bart still falls through
The TV scene don't skip ahead. We'll get there. It's not far away, so
That'll be fun to come back to you. I'll remember will you remember I won't remember
I don't know who I thought I was kidding. I might remember. I'm gonna write it down all right, so the original air date was
The the January 14th 1990 so like we said last week
the the first episode was the only one to to air in 1989 and
The rest were all after the 90s and through the 90s
So it's not far away, so
1989 and the rest were all after the 90s and through the 90s
so
Bart the genius this episode is the episode that truly establishes Bart as a breakout character
And and we'll talk about how that's more significant
Especially in this opening sequence so the first sequence is is the family sitting down to play Scrabble
And there's some fun jokes in there
You know the their dictionaries holding up one of the legs of their couch, which I thought was funny and
so they're like they looked up a word and
Okay, so Bart cheats and he invents a word
And many of you know it that word is Quidgey bow
And it has become in in Simpsons canon a fan favorite
Every true fan knows Quidgey bow and they know what it is
and so Homer confronts him and says you know we're not leaving until you tell me what it is and
That's when he tells him the definition is a big dumb balding North American ape with no chin and
then
Our March says and short temper
And then they you know
They do their thing so
Quidgey bow a big dumb balding North American ape with no chin has become
One of one of the fans most favorite
Word it's it's on TV show. I mean it's it's on t-shirts. It's on stickers. It's oh we should make stickers
I'm gonna make a Quidgey bow sticker who wants Quidgey bow stickers if you guys want a Quidgey bow sticker
I will put it up on a website and
Yeah, you know
Yeah, that'd be awesome
Hey anyway, uh enough sidetrack
then in school trouble
During the next scene they're in school and and Bart has some trouble because uh, he's vandalizing
Beautifully
He does a great job with a spray spray cam, but
Martin Prince tattles on him
freaking martin prince
he uh, he plays quite a prominent role here in the early few episodes, but
Uh our seasons rather but so yeah, he tattles on Bart and then Bart said to see principal skinner after school
well
During the test that they had to take
um
They it's an aptitude test and um
Bart has his daydream
about switching tests with martin
and martin finishes crazy early and goes out and
sits and reads by a tree and and very out of character for who we know now is martin prince
He's making faces at Bart
Which is funny
but
Forgive me. I know a lot of times we're going through this and i'll
Explain something to happen and i'll end it with that that was funny or which was funny. Just forgive me
Okay, I get it. I know
I I think almost everything in the sense is funny. You're going to be fine
Just get past it
And uh, you'll be okay. All right
So Bart
Erases his name puts martin's name on his paper and vice versa turns it in and we're done
Well, then the next scene it goes to dr. Pryor
who's the school psychologist
and
What school has a has a psychologist and then I my school's growing up never had psychologists
Maybe they did
But I was never bright enough or troubled enough
To need to meet them
Interesting
All right, so he declares Bart a genius
And he says he's going to do a test based on the switched test results
And this is where he says what Bart's IQ is
This is the the trivia that I asked earlier because of course we know it's not Bart's IQ. It's
Martin's
And i'm not going to tell you what the IQ is
Because I tell you at the end so just relax
Or you can pause this and just go watch the episode like I freaking asked you to
So this is where Bart's character really starts to develop
Uh in a very deep way and we see
It getting closer to to who we know now is Bart
Very different from the first episode in a lot of ways, but now we we see
Bart solidify the personality traits of him being mischievous and rebellious
But he also
exhibits
Some vulnerability and and a yearning for connection which we'll see because in the next scene
um
They uh, you know, the psychologist brings Bart in and has a talk with him
And they uh, they decide
To uh to transfer but no, i'm sorry. He talks to principal skinner
And they decide to uh to transfer Bart
to
Uh a school for the gifted
Uh, okay
I don't like to do a lot of editing because I prefer
I prefer this to be very organic. So i'm gonna make mistakes
And it's seriously not because i'm lazy. It's because I want you to know me for who I am for real
And i'm doing this for fun. So i'm not trying to appease people to make it sound better
I made a mistake. So it's it's it's I was while I was correct on both accounts actually
So there
Uh, everybody's in principal skinner's office
uh and
I didn't get that wrong. I said it was prior's office. So there is a principal's office barton's family
and
um
then
Mr. Pryor comes in to share the wonderful news. Sorry
Okay
moving on
He gets transferred to a school for gifted children
And he struggles a lot to fit in and understand the advanced material
And there's some good jokes in there
but
A really obscure joke that I think a lot of people don't really grasp
Is the satire
Of of both traditional education systems and the pressure placed on gifted children
And and I did I mean I didn't realize that in the beginning
Do I mean I didn't realize that in?
1990 but now that i'm much older and i've seen this episode several times I get it now, especially growing up
In that environment not the gifted children when I didn't ever go there. I was I was almost in the other
classes but
The the satire is not lost on me and it just shows again how clever these writers really were which I
Absolutely adore very very funny stuff
So now Bart's isolated from
his
potential friends at the new school
um because he's dumb and then
He uh, he attempts to rekindle or to connect again with his his older friends
And uh, and they turn on them. They reject him because they think he's a nerd
and uh, and that's um
More millhouse is shown but with black hair
And I think a different voice
No, I can't remember
You tell me
But i'm gonna look it up as soon as we're done because I I won't sleep tonight
So he's got no friends and that sucks
Uh, but to make it better we get to the next scene and marge is so excited about
Um bart's genius level academics that um
She gets them tickets to an opera
um
which is
It's funny in a lot of ways, but it also makes me wonder
I mean with without destitute the simpsons are always made out to be you wonder sometimes
You know how they how they afford?
box seats
At the opera, is that what it's called box seats? No at the balcony. Yeah balcony seats
Is it the mezzanine no mezzanine it's balcony pretty sure
You can tell I never went to the opera or any place classy enough to have a balcony
Anyway
Uh bart and homer are incredibly bored and eventually they just start making fart jokes and uh
Uh martin's family looks up at him, which is ironic
And because you know martin's the genius
That wasn't lost on me
and martin's dad
says something
really rude and snobby
but true because
Because they're dumb and uh and being obnoxious at a very upscale event
So the next scene we get to we get back to bart's school and he's very confidently mixing
Some chemicals and some some test tubes
test tubes
Uh beakers
Yeah
And his teacher who who by the way is the it's the same voice
um
As edna krabappel and this is the first episode where we get to hear
both edna krabappel and this other uh this other person miss melon who is uh, they're they're both voiced by
marsha wallace
So that's fun
Uh, and of course she becomes long-term character. Mr. Krabappel. She's in like almost every episode
And uh, miss melon I don't think is ever in another episode but same voice same person early on they they really didn't try to
Change their voice a whole lot
You know like last episode lisa did
You know yardley smith she did voices of like two or three other characters
um
Which was funny
But then we we end up getting somebody like hank azaria who does dozens of voices and they're all completely different
Sometimes you can't even tell you know, he's doing the same one
Whereas you get somebody like
Dan castellaneta who does homer simpson's voice
and there are times when
when he's doing willy
And because he's yelling just just the right pitch you can tell that's okay. Totally that's homer, right?
But in this episode and in this in this particular instance, there's like very little change to the voice. So I you know
Obviously the writing in that direction evolved and got much better
As uh as the time went on which is great
because it I mean it just seemed kind of lazy, but
That's right. We know it gets better
So that's that's the the great thing we can look back and remember
It did get better
So he's uh, he's mixing these two chemicals and and miss melon says well, you know what happens when you mix
These uh this and this
And he's still confident
Pours it anyway, and then kaboom really fun looking explosion funny classic sound of an explosion
And then you know, it's seen from outside the school then it cuts back in the class and there everybody's covered in
in green dew
So
He's got he causes an explosion during a chemistry
experiment
And then he's uh, he's brought back to
Mr. Pryor's office
and um, they they start to talking
and
This guy's really gullible mr. Pryor
Or or just incredibly trusting and somebody or in in those, you know those those tests
those standardized testing, you know the the
Aptitude tests with the scantron machines just so convinced
That the machine nailed it that he doesn't question bart
So anyway bart starts to put together a
Proposal that he convinced he was going to do and eventually just decides he's going to confess
Very different from the bart we we end up knowing so
You know, there's a lot more of this to kind of sensitive vulnerable bart at the very beginning of the episode
and or of the
The series and he okay, so he confesses by
Riding it out and he has an internal monologue the whole time
And then mr. Pryor comes back. He reads it and he's no I see so
Everything starts to go back to normal and then it shows bart at home
him
I don't think people realize
This this was the kind of humor we had
in the 90s, okay, Bart's dad his father homer
Says let's go. Let's go wash you off with some turpentine
I mean, I don't know how many times a
I don't imagine that a show would get away with it now
But then we got shows like Family Guy and they seem to get away with everything
Despite being canceled twice by the geniuses of bart
so maybe i'm being a little pedantic but
It seemed
It seems now as an adult that that's
I why didn't I understand that joke? So turpentine is very dangerous
You know, like you're not going to fry off your skin unless you've got like a severe allergy to the ingredients, but
Turpentine poisoning is a very real thing and you can get it from inhaling the fuel
turpentine poisoning is a very real thing and you can get it from inhaling the fumes or
Having contact on your skin and you know it getting into your bloodstream
just but it was 1990 so
I just made stupid jokes like that. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. I
I mean as an adult as a kid, I didn't know what it was. I don't know what turpentine was so
That joke was lost on me as as a youngster
But now as an adult who's clearly been desensitized
I think I think it's funny though
So then that's it with a lot of episodes
They they eventually just get to the end of the episode in this closure
Sometimes there's ironic closure or fourth wall breaking closure, but in this case, it was just standard
You know, he returns the springfell elementary things go back to the way they were
he confessed to Homer like I said and they washed it off with turpentine and
Originally he or initially he's angry, but eventually calms down. So that's it. That's the episode so
Fun fact that the recap and then all my blathering in between and before
Ends up being about the length of one episode. So
You're welcome. Now we get to talk about some more fun stuff and then and then discuss what we have
for next week
so
The opening sequences, there's a lot to that happens in this
So it's like I said, it's the first time the opening sequence was used in its entirety
And it's it's definitely
different
from the
second season opening
Which we'll talk about, you know in a month or two
Because there's they've made a lot of changes at that point
so
Now i'm not going to admit that i'm the kind of a nerd that like compares the opening sequence
In the first episode that they played in to like the opening sequence nowadays, but
If I was
That level of nerd i'd be able to tell you
That the school is a very light purple
Instead of the orange
Ish color that we know it to be
The simpsons logo is in a very dark at least a darker blue sky
with only a few clouds
That are whiter and transparent
There's a there's a bald man eating a sandwich with tongs the power plant when you're eating a sandwich
with tongs the power plant when you see homer
The walls of the
grocery store are red
Mm-hmm. Yep
Um lisa saxophone changes it's it's a lot more higher pitched
uh her solo
and
I don't know when it happened but and I I hope this isn't a mandela effect
I do my work my research. I like i've practiced again and i've just recently
Watched the first three seasons, but at some point I swear to you
That part of the sequence starts to get adjustments too like the songs that she plays. That's not a mandela effect
I'm not crazy that song changes and we're gonna find out when it happens
And uh, and that'll be fun. But so there's lots of little easter eggs and things like that
um
Yeah
I'm such a nerd, but that's why i'm doing this
I mean, i'm a nerd. I love the simpsons and that's exactly why
I decided to do this podcast and if you're listening, I'd like to think you're kind of a nerd, too
so
That's you know the opening sequence. There's probably other changes to or other differences that you may have noticed that I didn't
um
there's uh, there's some other things that you want to
We probably want to dive into like
the family dynamics
um, we really do start to see
Especially the the difference between the the relationship between bart and homer from episode one to episode two
like there's a little bit of it when
When bart pulls off homer's mask when he's the santa, but then they go and have a little heart to heart in santa's little workshop
um, but now
We've got more
moments of conflict
um
That become a lot more common, but but also some tenderness
There's uh, there's a lot of that that we'll
That we'll see more and more
And it it becomes I mean it becomes what we know it's it evolves into the relationship that we know
Between bart and homer right now and it's awesome
You know, that's that's what made them the simpsons
Uh in a lot of ways is the relationship between bart and homer. Um, the why you little is
Known in I don't know how many countries but people all over the world know it
Uh the you also
Kind of see a difference in humor
that's used in in the episode and it's
There's lots of different humor that they use and it's not just like slapstick humor
Which i've always thought was funny
But it's also the satire which as a child I didn't really get
I got the easy ones
But the obscure satire I didn't understand
And I love that because I feel like they they're writing it for
For us in the 90s
but
For us to rediscover 30 years 30 years later, right?
Uh, they that's not why they were writing it, but that's what I tell myself because it's it's funny
Um, so there are a lot of recurring elements that become staples of the show
Like the chalkboard gags the couch gags
And uh, and we hear in this episode the the catchphrase eat my shorts
Um that becomes
a staple of the show
Um, i'm pretty sure dough had already started in last week's episode
And that's probably it's it's uh be interesting to know how many episodes it's in but
Um, that's pretty common too. So we'll go over the staples as well because uh, because those are fun
um one other thing
Um that they want to tell you about is I don't know if you've seen this but
There was a tv or a movie at the time that was called national lampoon animal house
Which was a great movie and
When bart cheats on the iq test, you'll notice some similarities, but that's because
That scene was inspired by a similar scene from the film national lampoon animal house. So
If you've seen that hopefully you're going, oh, yeah
if not then
We can go watch it. It's a funny movie. So
Yeah, did you notice any changes
Uh or improvements to the animation style? I did
and uh and more notably I I noticed
how
More how much more advancements there were even from episode to episode and from season to season
So again, there's a lot leading up to season three when I think everything really starts to
kick in but
There's just so many things that we see in these first two seasons that that
Are you know, they end up really evolving and it's fun to go back as much as I want it did not want to do it
I'm glad I did because
You know, it was it was fun
Can you relate to bart's struggle in school
How do you relate to it in in terms of?
Like his desire to to be seen as intelligent. Is that something you struggled with?
To uh to be seen as intelligent. Is that something you struggled with as a as a kid?
Um, i'm assuming i'm talking to people my age other gen xers, but hey if you're not
If you're a different generation then uh, you know put yourself in that in that scene if you're currently at school same question
Do you relate to that?
I would love for you to share your favorite quotes
Or or moments from the episode. I'd love to hear that
I'll keep them
um, and of course i'll start to create some some social media where I can share those and we'll just have this uh,
database of of all the things that the question the comments that you guys share because
That's what this is all about just getting together and talking about
A really funny stupid show from 30 years ago
to change our lives
so
How do you think
You did with the trivia questions
Did you three out of three two out of three?
Two out of four is bad at math
Let's go through it and we'll see okay
So the two pictures on the walls of dr. Pryor's office one is of albert einstein. The other is bart simpson
You tell me why i'd love to know why bart is on the wall so
Yeah, you tell me why because that's weird right
why
number two according to homer simpson who invented the light bulb
albert einstein
And finally what is martin's iq?
216
216 i'm pretty sure that's that's uh, that's pretty good
no genius, but um
Pretty sure that's good. Thanks so much for tuning in. I really appreciate you wasting, you know 35 minutes of your time
Uh, hopefully of your downtime and uh and listening to me rant about this amazing show
I hope you'll tune in next week
when we talk about uh, episode three of season one homer's odyssey
and um
Like I said before I i'm gonna share my email this time
But the next time we come back i'll uh, i'll have some twitter
uh, or a twitter account for you and you can tweet at me or
um
And we'll see how far how far we go so
Thanks very much. I will leave you with this. I'm gonna play a scene from
The the episode this is the kwiji bow scene
So here we go. Let's watch it together
my turn
my turn kwiji bow
22 points plus triple word score plus 50 points using all my letters games over i'm out of here
Wait a minute you little cheater. You're not going anywhere until you tell me what a kwiji bow is
kwiji bow
uh
a big dumb balding north american ape with no chin and a short temper i'll show you a big dumb balding ape
I love this show. All right, that's all everybody. Thanks again, and I will talk to you next week