Talking Simpsons - Brawl In The Family With Chris Cabin

This is one of those episodes that I'd completely forgotten, but suddenly recalled about midway through your show. I’ve been a foster parent for just under three years now so the 2nd act hits a lot differently with me. It’s pretty rare that a family with a prior foster separation would be selected into a program that kept them together, but otherwise the steps that they go through are pretty accurate to what might happen in their situation, wolves and cougars not withstanding. When diagnosing their individual issues, I was struck by how unfair Gabriel is to Homer. His alcoholism is a very direct result of growing up under Abe’s constant abuse. Gabriel should recognize that trauma. Obviously it’s not as funny as calling him a childish buffoon, but it’s not something a worker would ever say, no matter how awful the father/husband was. All of this especially germane now that Roe has officially fallen. Although the effects of it won’t be felt immediately, it’s only going to take a few years for the already woefully underfunded foster care and family court systems to be pushed to their breaking points. One of the reasons I got involved in foster care was because my home state of Kansas has one of the highest rates of kids that get lost in the system. What I’ve learned from my experience is that DCF is all too eager to put kids into the system when so many of the issues families face are rooted in poverty and lack of treatment for substance abuse issues; things our state and nation are loathe to address directly. On August 2nd there’s a vote on whether or not to repeal our state constitution’s abortion access protections, so if you are or you know any fellow Kansans, please get out there and vote NO so that here, at least, bodily autonomy remains a human right.

Ron Sterling

I think this might have been the first episode I watched that really felt “off” to me. I didn't necessarily hate it on first viewing, but the disjointed structure of the second and third acts and the pointless meanness were really noticeable even at the time. While I continued to watch all of season 13 and a little into season 14, I consider this to be the beginning of the end for me as a regular viewer of new Simpsons episodes.

Christmas Ape

As someone who really dislikes the Jean era, I'm looking forward to hearing you guys discuss these episodes. In particular I saw seasons 13-16 quite a bit in syndication way back in the day, so I'm looking forward to revisit them and see if I've been too hard on this era. But so far, no! This episode and She of Little Faith are a very steep decline in humor quality from the end of the Scully production run. And She of Little Faith was one I remembered kinda liking when I was younger. The Scully years may have been a mess, but they were at least funny to me. Moe with two knives is pretty good, though.

I have seen this episode a fair numbers of times, but it always sticks out in my mind as being symbolic of "New Simpsons"--despite being....whispers *20 years old* whispers

Jay in Madison

The two wives/knives gag has always stuck with me but I must have purged the rest of this episode from my mind.

I assumed the family told Grandpa to lie about having sex with Ginger. I guess that would be less problematic than them actually having sex, but it's not great. It's also odd that Reverend Lovejoy went along with a plan to marry a very drunk woman to an old man. It's jarring to compare this episode to the grounded, relatable stories in season 3.

PurpleComet

I very rarely re-watch this episode, so I get slain by Edna Krabapoly every time.

mavrick

This is the last season (not counting the holdovers in season 4) to use Cel Animation, and while the transition to digital animation was rough i don't think finally making the jump in season 14 because episodes like this has some very weird animation mistakes

I find it odd to despite the dialog between Grandpa and Ginger in this episode you guys concluded that she was the one taken advantage of by Grandpa when it's clear she sexually assaulted him, thus negating her as the victim.

Fei wong fong

Correction on the Beauty and the Beast IMAX reissue: "Human Again" WAS storyboarded for the 1991 film, but they cut it out. It was indeed included in the Broadway musical version, as that kind of adaptation tends to both add cut songs and write new ones, but it did not originate from the production. Annoyingly, the remaster they made for the IMAX reissue did become the standard version released, as even the current HD version without Human Again still has lots of little changes left that were made to fit the song in, so it's not 100% authentic to the 1991 version.

Harry Thornton

The country was just getting dumber and meaner at this time, and proud of it. It was depressing to me even my beloved Simpsons were going the same way. From Kurt Cobain to Fred Durst 🤮

Neil Harris

The social worker's name, Gabriel, is the name of the archangel who acts as the voice of God, in Luke. So it's another point, along with the angelic pager ringtone, to obscure his nature. I don't remember this episode at all from its original airing.

Bradford A Barker