Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?

Hey everyone. This is Sari.

This is Shaun and we

are the Simpson siblings. We've been watching Simpsons ever since we were little. And we

talk about it pretty much every day.

Yup. So this is our pod. Uh, today's episode is brother, can you spare two dimes? This is season three, episode 24. So originally aired on August 27th, 1992, directed by rich Moore and written by John Swartzwelder.

And the scene opens with the classic chalkboard, but writing, I will not fake seizures, which I love imagining Bart just, oh God. On the floor while Mrs. Crabapple is just standing over him, just like giving him a judging, looking really Bart. And then we go to the opening couch scene where the whole family does somersaults coming in and lands on the couch and sticks their arms out for a perfect landing. Hmm.

Just like in real life. Yep. Oh, and we do have some guest stars on this episode. We have Danny DeVito as herb and Joe Frazier as himself. We start out right off the bat. We got the plants, having their physicals and Lenny shows up there. He just shows up and there's this, but right from the get-go that's how we start this.

I didn't know if you noticed how long Homer's gaze is looking downwards, just

awkwardly

long. Now there was a line to that. I don't know if the job or thinking the joke, but Homer says Melanie, oh, you forgot. There was a physical today. And he says, yeah, Does that just mean he shows up to work completely nude. Sometimes

I took it as he goes, um, commando and that he forgot to put on underwear

for the physical. So he had to take off

his yeah. Yeah. And for some reason, Homer knew that. They're good friends. They're really good. It's their guy pal. Um, and then we get the scene with, with the sperm where they're looking at place perm, and we we've gotten several shots before, maybe not before this episode, but we've gotten several shots in the series of Homer as sperm, which is really weird. With

that donking of their heads. And there's one of them with three eyes. I mean, not that they should have eyes at all, but they don't

have eyes. Um, and I, I don't know why, but the Smithers happy sperm are kind of cute because they're all just like, they're

so enthusiastic. Yup. I loved Homer's reading of 104% body fat.

Oh, that was great. Stop eating in the tape

two minutes into a show and, oh, you're already laughing over all the

quotes. I call that the JPM, which is jokes per minute. And you want, you want to hide JPM on the best Simpsons

episode. They need to be quality. They need to

be quality. Yeah. So then we cut to herb and his. Sort of hobo buddies, just kind of chilling next to the fire and we get Charlie Chaplin eating a boot, which I've actually seen the movie where he does that. It's actually pretty good. I enjoy me some Charlie Chaplin. Herb's mentioning that you can just put any Japanese word in a car. And it'll stop the temper. I hack back.

I loved, especially with the recent business acquisitions that have taken place, the guy who was talking about the Mickey mouse massage parlors that he did the logo for. And he saying that they made him put Mickey's pants back on for the logo.

I was watching that episode on Disney plus,

which. Absolutely adore that they had, you know, there had to have been some corporate discussion for some of those scenes. Where do we cut this out? What was it? The Streisand effect? Where if you hear something, so if they were to cut it. Then it would have Johnny more attention to that versus just let it happen.

That's definitely the Streisand effect. Look it up, Google. Interesting. They actually just straight up show footage of the other episode, right. That they're flashing back to. This is, this is a sequel to that other episode in which you don't get a lot of direct sequels to episodes. I mean, these two pair pretty well together. I mean, if we've reduced the other episode, I guess we're probably

going to be referencing this one.

Yeah, which will really be a follow behind because I don't know we're going to make up a term. Um, equal pre-call all right. So then we have a Bart doing this whole Olympic thing on the couch,

right. As this classic part.

And I love how Lisa is just totally in step with the lie, how the couch breaks. She's just like, oh yeah, it's crazy. Right. She doesn't try to tell on him or anything. They're in cahoots

and Homer's devastation. Like a family member just died. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. My. Knowledge of Hogan's heroes is from this show. And I know the whole pie. I've never seen a single episode, but I know that that's something that's said a lot because it's also referenced in

several of it. I'm the same way, but it's funny how I. No, the original content for what's being referenced, but it

still makes you laugh because it just sounds

funny. And that's the whole joke for a minute. Oh yeah, there we go.

Yup. Then we got the Montgomery burns award for outstanding achievement in the field of

excellence. That takes up two lines on my notes. I had to write it down. Oh

yeah. It takes up to my tip. Exactly. Two lines actually. And I love how this snowballs, where he's like. At first, they're just going to pay him off and then they're going to give him this award and then there's going to be this whole ceremony. It's like, how much did this cost them at the

end of the day? That's what I was thinking. How. Uh, of an expense to give them a $2,000 check. Yeah. And I, I just love that when they were giving away the award, how Mr. Burns and Homer react with Chu excitement as to who the winner is.

I don't know. And that say, I think that's something even at either March or Lisa says, like, don't, you know, that you're going to get the award right. I am a little bit off topic, but I love how freaking adorable. He said isn't there a little Tiara.

Yeah. Like it's just, it is a good job with

that. Such a weird little outfit for her. So that's kind of how her finds out about, you know, for some reason, homework getting $2,000 was reason enough for him to come back.

This was in the past, this was 1992. But even then, I mean, not that $2,000, isn't a lot, but. To get a whole company off the ground and an invention and all the equipment and stuff that it's still not enough money to travel across the country. And to,

and to convince someone that hates your guts to come back to you, right. $2,000 or. What would the inflation be for that? Do you know? I'm not

sure, right? Yeah. But I mean, it's, it's not no money to turn away, but it's still like, for all the plotting and scheming that herb does

that life changing amount of money. Right? Yeah. Thank you. Jumps on the train and we get a quick look at the crusty brand sulfuric acid. I don't know if you caught that. I would love to do an episode just on the whole crusty brand.

Yeah, that would be when crusty touches the clock burns. Don't touch that as extremely hot

and the crusty brand pregnancy tests that may cause birth defects. Oh man. There's some great ones, but that was, I liked that quick, quick game and

just the fun of all these crazy things. Like the sulfuric acid, the lions. And then just the opportunity to train car with an open door full of pillows.

Yep.

There we go. Now, there was one thing that I saw, um, I found looking online because there's another scene that involves train cars in another episode. But originally this is another thing I love hearing about things that are cut out, but originally herb was going to ask someone on the train and say, Hey, where's this going?

awesome. And that's, that's why these episodes are classics. They. They don't waste a joke. They wait for the right

time and the delivery.

Perfect. That's pretty good homework going in to see this, you know, massage chair, right? He goes all I, I wrote this down. He goes all classic. Dr. Who intro with all of the, everything warping, the

lights I'd have to. I appreciate it. That was a 2001. Space honesty reference.

Oh, it was okay.

I it's been forever since I've

seen that movie, but same here. Okay. I don't need to look back on that. Anytime. Something warps like that. I think old doctor who and true, but yeah, it could have been in 2001, a space Odyssey. Now

another thing, I don't know if I I'm apparently loving, finding random facts. Um, do you know where or why that chair was put into the episode where the inspiration came from? No, there was something with the timing of when the episode was going to be released, where they had to rush it. And there was one of the writers that ended up pulling 20 hour work days. And so to help them through the day. He brought a vibrating chair from home.

I love how organic that process is

right there. That it can be so personal to just a handful of

people. Yeah, that's great. So I did recognize the Flanders doorbell as a mighty fortress is our. I Flinders Flanders. I know. Yeah. I like recognize that him. I'm like, I know that one. Oh my gosh. The whole thing where they like make over herb and it's so classic

Flanders. I always get rod and Todd mixed up when the Todd's at the taller one. When they're talking about who's going to annoy me, Mike.

Um, man, it reminds me of the, the episode where they baptized Bart and Lisa, and they have like the baptizing emergency kit where they have to like break the glass. Um, man, I loved the herb line, so many emotions how to express them and he just punched them into me.

Right. That instant, the moment Homer season.

Mm, punch that's that's all you gotta do. And the light, while you're a guest in our home, could you just kick me in the butt? That's just one of those homers quotes that's even better taken out of context.

My favorite thing is the next scene. For the next cut, where someone comes back into your house that you've bankrupted. He no longer has money. No longer has a home has nothing. What do you do? Play monopoly.

Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. The. Uh, speaking of Lisa being adorable in this episode, the whole spiel she has, where it's like, you've landed on my space. There will be a car by to pick you up and the fee will be like, she just kind of exaggerates this whole thing. Oh my gosh. It's so. I wrote this down and I don't remember the exact context, but I know this is a March quote. I got the recipe from the utility grade beef council.

Right. And that was a nice glass of milk, milk, milk, milk

with vitamin. Oh, my gosh. I noticed too, um, herb singing the car commercial to Maggie. She goes asleep. Pam writes, we have, um, mother Simpson singing the fig Newtons song, a Homer before she leaves. Oh yeah. And I can't remember it. He says half-brother I, I can't remember the exact context behind that. So it may not have been something that mother Simpson

had sent, but just that whole. You know, somebody

got it from the comfort of a jingle. Exactly. The drinking bird. I was thinking when he gets all big and worked from home and has the, the bird do the buzz. Right. And he says at the end of the episode, they wants to keep the bird. And I'm wondering if that's the exact same, I'd have to look at the color scheme to see if it's the exact same colors. But I was thinking, wow, that's some good continuity.

Yeah. I never made that connection.

different scenes. The couch has just broken in the bathroom. Yeah, I've

never bothered to fix it. And there's never any resolution to that too. It's just one of those things where when the episode ends everything resets back to normal,

it's just one of those time loop sort of things. Okay. So here we have the whole concept of the baby translator, which is of course ridiculous.

Well, this is where I again had lots of fun. Oh no. Yeah. This is very surface. Searching, but I just typed into Google this morning, maybe translator. Some of the results that came up there is one called chatter baby, which is an app it's through the UCLA research team. They say they have a 90% accuracy, 6,000 different variables. They look at an audio sample. And they have a database of 2000 samples to go off of. They even claim that they can potentially spot early autism risks. That's

amazing.

And there's another one, that's an infant Christ translator that has a 200,000 sound database that it pulls from. So I don't know how much of it's directly inspired by this episode, but I would love to think that this episode. Lingered in someone's mind and years down the road, they, when technology advanced, they thought, Hey, we shouldn't be, do some machine learning to see if we can actually make this a thing. That's

amazing if this episode, I mean, we don't know for sure, but it'd be cool if this episode inspired

that I can't vouch for how accurate they are, but you know, their websites were saying 80 to 90% accuracy, so, okay.

I need to. I need to have a baby here right now so that I can test this. I have our first guest star. I know two people who are pregnant. So I'm going to like whichever one, whichever one gives birth person and be like, let me use this translator.

The translator comes back and says, this leash demeans us both.

It's gotta be in Danny DeVito's I've soiled myself. How embarrassed.

I love Herb's like how many prerecorded things he had to make for

that? Oh my God. Yeah. You can just kind of picture him sitting there all night. Just all of these different phrases. And then we have this sort of toy convention sort of thing. Maybe convention they go to. And professor Frank has a son.

Well, not for long.

I was sitting there thinking, wow, Frank has the sun and then the sun goes through the window and an airplane. I'm thinking. Is that it did. He said this get real dark. Cause he doesn't show up again. So either, either he met his untimely end or maybe he got taken away because he was just being so negligent with them. I don't know, but it was a little depressed.

If the episode could have been longer, I could imagine that being reported to chief Whigham, William running for 10 seconds slowing down and then just giving up.

Well, if they hadn't figured out their voices yet, yet, uh, Lou and Eddie could have swapped voices. The last episode we analyzed, they had different voices. It was really weird. So we end the episode. It's, it's a success and her gives gifts to everyone. I like the call back to the books that Lisa wanted and Bart gets a card to that. I can't remember what March. Yeah, I didn't write that down.

because she didn't want anything. She initially said, no, no, don't do anything. He gave more of like a token of the

appreciation. Oh, now I remember it was a washer and dryer. That's

right. That was Mo he sold them to mom and

there was a washer and dryer.

Oh man. Kicking the

dryer. Yeah, that was great. And of course he says he forgives Homer and Homer appreciates it. But of course this is Homer, so we want something concrete. And then of course he goes, Homer, I bought you the damn chair.

Well, yeah. And that's, and he also gave him the $2,000 back. But I feel like if Homer was the sole investor in something that makes a man rich, he should get more than doubling that initial small

investment. Okay. But of course, how much money did he make her blues in the earliest? True. Bye her herb also gave him that responsibility. So is that Herb's fault or Homer's falling and that's something we can discuss if we go back and do that

episode. And one thing you noted down too, before he even said that he gave him the chair, he said his, his gift was his forgiveness, bankrupting him with. Then we never see him again. So

when I did write a note on that, so there is one more her appearance, but it's very quick. It is in a season 24 episode as an answering machine voice. And he pretty much says. Hey, this is herb I'm poor again. So it kind of just shows that he's just sort of stuck in this loop and it's kind of, uh, it's either, you know, some sort of divine, you know, comedy that he just happens to always be in this loop or he's making these bad decisions

eventually down the road. And that's the thing too is yeah. Was the one who bankrupted him, but he should have had the sense knowing homework, not to

put him in charge. Yeah, exactly. And this episode was actually created because people were upset at the end of the previous episode, how it ended with herb, that they wanted him back. And I also, I read that some people thought, do you need a veto? Wasn't quite giving it his all in this one. Compared to his first one that maybe they wasn't giving, maybe not that he wasn't giving it his all, but that he didn't enjoy it quite as much. And I don't know if he was just tired of voice acting

or I also feel like herb and himself, he's a very dry character. Like he has a bunch of ups and downs, but his raw personality is just. Very business. Now he doesn't have all that flair.

Yeah. He's, he's one of those, he's not like your top 10 memorable Simpsons characters. And, and I was thinking that this may have overlapped with, um, Hercules because Danny DeVito was the voice in Hercules, but this would have been a bit too early. And thinking to that character, he was very sort of spry and. Um, little goat guy and he had all these funny lines, whereas this is just very kind of played straight. Like there's not much bounce to his character with herb.

My initial thought too was like, well, who wouldn't want to be on the Simpsons? But at this point, this was their third season. They could have this show could have been dead in a

year, but yeah, nobody knew then. Yeah. So that's interesting. Know, other than one quick voice in season 24 is the last we see of herb. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. There we go. That was, that was another episode. Yeah, it

was it's like I said before, it's really fun going through and watching these episodes that even just this one episode, I probably literally seen it about 20 times in my life, at least. But to look through with an analytical eye and look for things to catch and just enjoy it in a different way. It's, it's been a lot of fun.

Yeah. I hope all of you got some, a different insight into this episode that you may not have noticed before, and we're really happy to have you here. This is just our second episode. We're still kind of getting into the swing of things, but I hope you've enjoyed it and yeah. So, um,

bye everybody.