Welcome to Everyone - Tree house of Horror
01:27:46
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Back by absolutely no demand it’s a Welcome To Everyone bonus episode for Halloween! In a world filled with divisions, it’s time to find common ground, and for a few generations, that’s quoting The Simpsons. The Not For Everyone Podcast’s Snobby Bobby and Crude Rude Dude team up with Welcome To Horror’s Chris, Lee and Adam to put together their ultimate list of The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror segments. You didn’t ask for it, and we delivered. A Halloween gift from the “Welcome To Everyone” team, we hope you enjoy.
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Adamwhether or whatever, we're all more or less the same age.
AdamAnd I was telling my wife last time, I'm like, this like, this is our entire genera- multiple generations since of humor is this is foundational to all of it.
ChrisYeah.
Adamjust everything from line delivery to referenciness. It's just like, it's all The Simpsons, you know.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThat's I sent a thing to Bobby about this, there's a play where, it's set after like the apocalypse.
AdamAnd, the characters bond over recreating an episode of The Simpsons, because it's the only thing that that they could they all know.
ChrisYeah.
AdamLike all these disparate group of people, but the one thing they all can do is probably verbatim do a Simpsons episode.
ChrisNice.
AdamIt's the great unifier.
ChrisIt is.
AdamYeah.
AdamI mean, I would say it it bounds generational gaps too.
AdamBecause my 10-year-old at this point in history, and I and I'm kind of ashamed and kind of proud to make this statement, probably seen more episodes of The Simpsons than me.
Chris
AdamOn Disney Plus, and this dude will just watch it all.
AdamI mean, like, I'll go through to like season 26, and he's watched all of it.
AdamAnd I'm like, I'd never seen one episode.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut then I'll walk in when it's on and it's something I've never seen.
AdamAnd just being in the room for three minutes, I will start laughing because there's always something freaking funny on The Simpsons.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI still know what.
ChrisAbsolutely.
AdamIt's still hilarious.
AdamLet's just do this. let's start with Lee. Like, have you been keeping up with The Simpsons this entire time it's been on?
LeeNo, I, so I watched up to, probably about season 15 or so.
LeeAnd then I dropped out and I'd not seen anything since, and I still haven't, apart from I went and watched all of the Halloween ones and with the exception of that, yeah, I've seen very little of the the later ones really.
ChrisI didn't even realise they were still making it, to be honest.
ChrisI like, not, I didn't had no idea.
AdamHuge fan, didn't know it was still on.
ChrisWhat like, I remember when it came out and yeah, like blown away by this cartoon that had, you know, all sorts of references in, brought its own references and just the characters were so unusual for cartoon at that age.
ChrisWhen it came out, I I just yeah, I don't know, they captured something so special. but yeah, and then I don't know, one day I just completely forgot it existed and nobody ever mentioned it since.
ChrisUntil, really, until you brought it up. I was like, what, they're still doing it? And then they're like, hey, there's a mashup with Family Guy, and they're like, The Simpsons still on?
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI mean, they they push it pretty heavy in America still.
AdamAnd what what about you, UK Adam?
AdamIt was a it was a weird one for me because it was the different it was the essential difference between whether your family had satellite TV or not.
Chris
AdamAnd we didn't, and I but I remembered, weirdly enough, I did remember the Tracey Ullman Show.
AdamBecause we were fan we we were fans of her anyway over here, and then that show came on and The Simpsons was basically the slightly annoying bit in the middle where you're like sort of, well, this isn't anything to do with the rest of the show.
ChrisInteresting.
AdamBut then when it was and then, yeah, we didn't have satellite telly, so I didn't I didn't see it when it first sort of bloomed.
AdamAnd probably the first bits I saw were they then started showing it on BBC Two, and it was probably around the time they did the X-Files episode.
AdamBecause I think at that point, the two things were at such a zenith.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, it would be daft not to show it to the world.
AdamAnd then they started releasing it on video and I was buying them all, so.
AdamBut again, I just drifted out of the fact it was on. I think it was almost like there's so much of it now.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamNot, I mean, it's not like, it's not like the MCU or something like that. It's not like it, you know, they they deliberately make episodes about how you can watch The Simpsons at any point and not really know what's going on.
ChrisRight.
AdamYou know, there's the episode where we find out the truth about Principal Skinner, and then they just say, well, everyone's just gonna call you Principal Skinner and forget about the other bloke. And, yeah.
AdamWhat's the truth about Principal Skinner?
AdamHe's a no good nick. He's Armond something or other. He's not even real. He's like an Arminian.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamRight?
AdamHe's like it's he met the real Skinner in Vietnam, and the real Skinner died in action, so he took his name.
AdamYeah, and he just plays his mum, didn't even care.
AdamThis sounds vaguely familiar.
ChrisThat's it.
AdamSteamed Hams.
AdamOkay, so let me ask you guys this, like, was there kind of, like, it sounds like it was exclusive to satellite, according to what you just said, Adam.
AdamBut like, was there any kind of like, puritanical rejection of The Simpsons when it first appeared on the scene? Like, were people were parents and in school boards, you know, frightened and appalled by it?
AdamNot letting you say cowabunga or eat my shorts.
ChrisI don't remember any teachers caring at all.
AdamI was going like, right when this started getting popular, I was going into like kindergarten, first grade, and we weren't, for a while there, we weren't allowed to wear shirts of The Simpsons to school.
ChrisReally? Wow.
AdamYeah, and now it just seems so benign and like, yeah.
AdamThat that never happened over here.
AdamWe had it with South Park. There was a big controversy with South Park.
AdamWhich again is the opposite way around where it's like, if you watch South Park now, fuck me, the stuff they get away with. It's even worse now in a good way.
AdamBut but no one's no one's watching from the moral majority to complain about it.
ChrisRight.
AdamBut yeah, The Simpsons never really, we never got that over here. We got, do the Bartman.
AdamThe big the big argument was, I just remember the big argument being like, well, Bart Simpson disrespects his father. I'm like, but his father's a fucking idiot and it's kind of the entire point of the show.
AdamLike, even in like first grade I'd be like, yeah, but like we all know like hopefully my father's not as dumb, like, you know, it's just like you can still discern like the moral imperative of The Simpsons at a young age.
ChrisAnd I think Bart does respect his mum enough.
AdamRight.
ChrisYou know, it's Yeah.
AdamYou know, no one just no one respects her mum.
AdamI remember seeing a thing with Matt Groening where he says, they, they're the only family on TV that go to church.
ChrisYeah, yeah, that's true.
AdamEvery week, they zip it.
AdamThey they are essentially a perfect family.
AdamAnd in the just the idea of Springfield is just so any town USA, you know, intentionally.
AdamLike I've always thought if I had all the time in the world, I could watch every episode of The Simpsons and try to figure out where Springfield most likely would be. Like, what state it would be in, but I've not had the time.
AdamBut that said, I would say this is my second fandom as a child.
AdamLike my first was Pee-wee Herman. Like I was obsessed with Pee-wee Herman. Like that's my first cognisant recollection of being a fan of something.
AdamAnd then The Simpsons quickly overshadowed that right as it was coming out.
AdamAnd I was like, it doesn't, like my parents didn't care, but even if they did, like there's no way you would keep me from that.
AdamMy dad used to put it on all the time.
AdamYeah, yeah, eventually they came around to it anyway.
Adambut it would come on every day after school, two episodes, it would be what, Adam? Home Improvement, The Simpsons, Home Improvement. And The Simpsons, you're like, fuck, I gotta wait through another goddamn episode of Home Improvement to watch another episode of The Simpsons.
AdamAnd then there would be another one on at like 10:00 at night.
AdamYeah, so what Adam was saying earlier is you needed to have the satellite TV to have it.
AdamIt went the entire opposite here in the States.
AdamFirst, when I was little, 'cause this shit came out when I was like 10 years old, so I was like the prime age. And it was once a week, you had to wait for once a week.
AdamAnd then it got to the point where we'd come on at 6:00 at night too, every night, once it got to like season three or four and they had enough.
AdamAnd then it was Simpsons, Home Improvement, Simpsons, Home Improvement.
AdamAnd then at 10:00, it would come on.
ChrisMarried with Children sometimes too.
AdamRight. So by the time, like, mid-2000, the year 2000, I mean, The Simpsons was on like at least two hours a day in America.
AdamAnd when I was a kid in like junior high and high school, I had the buddy that would record every episode on The Simpsons.
AdamYou have another buddy that did that too.
AdamAnd like.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThe the the commercials. So I had the one friend that had all The Simpsons on VHS, you know.
AdamAnd he'd like, he was the the nerd that would go through and label them out, they're like, oh, you know, we want to watch Itchy and Scratchy Land.
AdamLike, he knows we could we don't have to wait until it just randomly comes on.
AdamYou know.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI remember having the thought back in those days of like, they should just make an entire fucking channel that just plays The Simpsons.
AdamLike when I was like nine, I'm like, that's all I have TV for. That's all I want to watch.
AdamIt's already on three hours a day. Just make a whole channel where you just play them on repeat.
ChrisNow we have Disney Plus, which is what we need.
AdamIt's streaming.
AdamBut also, if you have regular cable in America, The Simpsons is still on at least two hours a day. There's some channel playing The Simpsons at least two hours a day. No doubt about it.
AdamIt's it's weird, it's kind of got like that over here.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIn the, I think, BBC Two, Channel 4, Sky, Disney Plus, like, everyone just shows, so you can like, it's a Sunday morning, oh, Simpsons will probably be on.
AdamIt's the longest running fucking television show that's not like news or some shit.
AdamIt's it's probably, you know, as much as we talk about, you know, it kind of fell off in this season and we don't really watch it anymore, then Adam saying his kid watches other.
AdamIf they they probably run the numbers and said like, it's we're better off playing The Simpsons. I mean, it's a guaranteed paycheque for the networks if you just play a lot of Simpsons, like someone's gonna watch it. Like that that, you know, it fills that quota in one way or another.
AdamSo,
Adamanything else before we jump into the the lists here?
LeeI just wanted to say very quickly something that Adam said about earlier about, you know, like he loves it and his kid loves it and it sort of spans the generations.
LeeI remember when it first came on on a Sunday, like there was always a battle in our house for who was gonna get to the TV first, 'cause like if my parents came in, that was it. It didn't matter what you were watching, what you were doing, they were like, well, I don't want to see that, so it's going off.
Leeand The Simpsons was the one thing for half an hour every Sunday night, we all would be there 20 minutes early, like waiting for it to start, so we could all sit and watch it together and then we'd all just go our separate ways for the rest of the week, television wise, so.
AdamThe great unifier.
ChrisYeah.
LeeAbsolutely.
AdamI mean, it's I get jokes now from the old seasons that I didn't get when I was a kid.
AdamWe replaced church and Sunday supper with The Simpsons in the 90s, basically.
AdamYeah, they went to church so that we didn't have to.
AdamThey went to church so that we didn't have to.
AdamYeah.
ChrisDoes The Simpsons explain the downfall of society then?
AdamThrill me.
AdamMusic.
