Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. Before we get started, check this out as it will be in tonights episode and I will talk more about it later on. https://youtu.be/5cvDJfbW2s4
On the death front, George Carlin’s older brother Patrick has passed away at the age of 90. I found this on Twitter from comedian Rick Overton, who had retweated this from a George Carlin account.
Farewell and thanks uncle Patrick! Loved hanging out and talking with you! And just loved being on the phone, whenever we got to talk. You’re missed. You’re loved.
And big love to you, Dennis, to Kelly Carlin and everyone who loved him.
Here’s another link to the death of George’s brother and some of the stuff in here, I didn’t even know. For example: he was a podcaster? https://deadline.com/2022/04/patrick-carlin-brother-george-carlin-and-comedy-writer-dies-at-90-1235004763/
Patrick had read the abridged version of the audiobook, of his younger brother’s final book Last Words, which he had help writing from fellow comedian Tony Hendra. The audiobook also had an interview with Kelly Carlin and Tony together, talking about the book and how Tony got involved with it, along with Patrick.
There is something else which I feel needs to be said, which is the difference between liberals and conservatives. With Last Words, George (through Patrick) had opened my mind to why those on the right are diametrically and mostly reflexively opposed, to those on the left politically. Basically, the left pay more attention to people and human rights, while those on the right are more enclined to care about things and property rights, over human rights. Both sides of politics have had a history of censorship and the right had no problem with George and his 7 words you can’t say on TV. In fact, here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_v._Pacifica_Foundation
Okay, Morality in Media is a right wing group which clames to be going after obscenities, but also condemns most comedians who make fun of religion. For example: the Monty Python movie Life of Brian. They have changed their name and here is the Wikipedia article on the group, as they are now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_on_Sexual_Exploitation
Right now, it’s the left who have used political correctness as their way of censoring how we talk about and to each other, about one another. For example: here is a piece of his last book which was published (while George Carlin was alive) about politically correct language, as oppression disguised as tolerance. https://youtu.be/7EMiSsxpP0E
As for those on the right, it’s all about freedom and the best example is those stupid freedom convoy’s throughout the world, which is all about the protesters personal freedom, to do as they please and fuck everybody else. They (in their own mind) have every right to blockade and disrupt society because they can. Thankfully, governments on both sides of the political spectrum have put a stop to this for the time being. Another example of how right wingers are now is Donald Trump and his whole “Make America Great Again” crap and you can bet that other similarly leaning politicians have their own phrase, for their own country. Unfortunately, white supremacy is also involved and this goes back to the convoys again. If you wanna know more, just do a search on freedom convoy and you will find out a lot of stuff you previously didn’t know about, or I didn’t know about for that matter.
One more thing, you wanna hear what Patrick sounds like? Of course! https://youtu.be/aMjk0QV4V9A
On the birthday front, , former Simpsons writer and talk show host Conan O’Brien turned a year older on Monday. He is one of the many who had payed tribute to Taylor Hawkins on Twitter, after the Foo Fighters drummer had passed away on March 25th. Because of his past as a Simpsons writer and his late-night talk shows and all the bands who had played on them over the years, I can link The Simpsons to a lot of different people. The same goes with J Leno and much of the same musicians he had on the Tonight Show. There are people who post bands playing on both shows on Youtube and I can’t help, but link them to The Simpsons, thanks to both of these men. After all, bands like: Linken Park, Deftones and all sorts of bands who will probably never appear in Springfield are linked, thanks to these two funny guys. Before I forget, check out this podcast and of course, you can follow Conan O’Brien on Twitter and Facebook. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/id1438054347
Besides non-Simpsons related guests, he has had the voice actors on his show over the years and here is an example of one Guest appearance, complete with his own guest starring appearance on the Simpsons, after he left the show. https://youtu.be/AGoeOAJTym0
It was 35 years ago on April 19th, that this Tracey Ulman short had aired featuring: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. I had put it in the post centred around this short last April, but here it is again. https://youtu.be/7k0YEkL3MC8
Today it is all about the episode The Otto Show, wich had aired 30 years ago yesterday and 3 days after the tribute concert for Freddie Mercury, which was the subject of last weeks post.
Basically, the main story revolves around Bart and Milhouse going to see Spinal Tap at a hockey arena in Springfield. The concert last 20 minutes but this inspires BART to want to be a rockstar. So, Homer buys Bart a guitar and he has a lot of difficulty in playing it and he gives it to Otto to see what he can do. Otto shows Bart and us that he can play and stops driving the school bus to entertain the kids. After a while and after Martin reminds Otto that they should have been at school a few minutes ago, he drives as fast as he can and crashes the bus, flipping it over on its side. This is possibly a reference to the episode Bart Gets An F, when Bart says that Otto always tries to tip it over and Otto says “damn thing never goes over… does it?” He gets stripped of his job as school bus driver because he doesn’t have a license and principal Skinner takes over driving the bus.
Otto goes to the DMV to try and get his license but fails and one of his mistakes was misspelling the word bus. Also complicating things is that he was evicted for not paying rent and goes to live in a trash can.
Bart throws away garbage and it hits Otto and Bart decides to take Otto home. Homer and Marge are reluctant and Otto promises to do what he can to help out, but he doesn’t. Also, he clogs up the toilet and gets collect calls, which really gets on homers nerves. The last straw was when he scared Lisa with a bedtime story. Just before Marge and Homer throw Otto out, Marge convinces him to try again to get his drivers license and he says he will do it, especially after he finds out that Homer called him a spunge.
Otto passes this time because he entertained Patty with stories about Homer having food on him for days and his other rather crude behaviors. This is despite that Otto did even worse this time but Patty decided to pass him anyway, because of that.
I mention this episode because it was the first episode with a heavy metal band as guest starrs on The Simpsons, even if it is Spinal Tap with: Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest reprising their roles as the three core members of the band. One thing I’m curious to find out is who played guitar? I couldn’t find that out anywhere whether it was on Wikipedia or any of the Simpsons fan sites and I would love to know who is doing the shredding and playing those Power chords, along with barre chords. If you play guitar, you know the difference between the two and vocally, you can distinguish one from the other, as a power chord is simply a root note and a fifth note above it, called a five chord. Barre chords are either a major or minor chord, which requires one or more fingers pressing down on the strings with one hand, while the other strums or picks it with either fingers or a pick. Anyway, I digress.
I guess another reason for Spinal Tap’s appearance on the Simpsons is that the band is a satire on the rock and roll lifestyle but other bands have said that they could relate to it. I have heard interviewers ask hard rock and metal bands if they had watched the original 1984 movie This Is Spinal Tap and if you have watched it, you know the music and that there is a fine line between stupid and clever. Right? In case you’re asking, most bands have watched it and can relate to a lot of the mishaps such as: getting lost on the way to the stage, having a stage prop which is not the right size or does not work, getting burned or caught in a pyrotechnic explosion, technical problems with the sound and lighting, having disagreements with management and each other and, having a girlfriend or wife interfere with the band chemistry. So far, I haven’t heard of any exploding drummers or deceased members who had choked on somebody else’s vomit, other than their own. There’s a lot more, but I encourage you to watch the movie and then, read about the movie on Wikipedia. Bands could relate, but members of Spinal Tap went to see metal bands, in order to get into the roll. One band that they went to see was Saxon, who are also from England and had recorded a song with Sir Elton John in 1986, called Party Til You Puke. Okay? https://youtu.be/qi5XjAgyn9w
Near the end of the episode, Homer goes through all of the things he had got Bart, that were no longer useful to the boy. He had a short wave radio, among other things. I had no idea that short way of was a standalone band, besides FM and AM. I learned more about how radio frequencies were divided into bands and band plans before studying to get my ham radio license and for me, I am mainly into VHF and UHF which are easier to access and the radios which most security guards and malls are walking around with, are probably on the UHF band, above the 70 CM band, in the business band, along with GMRS and FRS radios. I bet you’ve noticed people with two-way radios on a belt or something and now, you have an idea what they are and why, is pretty obvious, for those who are security guards or who may not always have a Smart phone on them at the time. Of course, these days it’s a bit different with various other bands such as Digital Mobile Radio Service being the most prominent. I recognize it because of it’s sound, coming out of the receiver end, when the user keys up or unkeys. Anyway, I digress.
Another reason that I like this episode is that it centres around Otto, who drives the School bus and as I may have mentioned in past posts, I like buses and especially those which got us to school and back. My best memories of riding on school buses is going on field trips, as I went to school on a greyhound bus and singing songs while riding from point a to point B and back again, is and was a lot of fun back then. In the case of this episode, the kids sang the song Hail to the Bus Driver, which I don’t think I sang as a kid. At least, I don’t remember singing it, but I know we did sing some songs during my first years of summer camp, when going on field trips on a school bus and in particular, one of the big buses as opposed to a mini bus. I’ve never liked mini buses because there nothing more than cars with a bus body and seats. There are some buses with the same body as a big school bus, which are also mini buses and I don’t like them either. Put me on a type C bus and I’m happy. By the way, how could you not spell “bus” correctly? Did Otto spell it “buss”?
The song which Otto performs on the bus is Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd! By the way, the tradition of yelling “Free Bird” at a concert was started by a DJ, with the idea to yell it at an event which is really lame. Some bands have actually obliged audiences when they would be heckled as such and here is one example of a band who obliges, like this. https://youtu.be/ZmiDMR2kZMQ
There’s a lot I could talk about, but I want to end this post by giving you some Tap, as in Spinal Tap and the song we heard in the episode, without the feedback from the guitars. Before I do, I want to remind you about tonights episode called My Octopus and a Teacher. Yes, I know, but it involves another new teacher for Bart, in the shape of Rayshelle Peyton, who is voiced by Kerry Washington and I wonder if this teacher will actually stick around. From what I have heard, there could be a chance that she does, but that’s just me. I’m looking forward to the episode, even if Lisa becomes friendly with an octopus, or many other octopi. Anyway, enjoy the music. https//youtu.be/R-r_X3kuQrw
Simpsons on Sundays 