“Listen carefully and my words will shape images as clear as any teevee show.” – Homer Simpson

This is Season 13’s obligatory “storytelling” episode, where they have three distinct segments. In this case, that means ignoring what’s going on in the episode is a lot easier as they can riff on the source material, so get ready for some half assed analysis of the Iliad and Hamlet. There is also a lot of animation discussion on this one, though it is of the least enlightening kind. There are about four different long discussions that go more or less like this:

Someone Who Doesn’t Do Animation: How did you do this before computers?

Someone Who Does Animation: Like this, but it’s a lot easier with computers.

It was mildly interesting the first time, not so much by the end. When not discussing animation, they squeeze in time to laugh about how they have to stretch things for time and various other errata.

Eight guys here; no celebrities, no women.

0:55 – These trilogy episodes are good for the writers because they can use someone else’s storyline.

1:25 – The couch gag on this one is a live action shot of the Simpsons in a flipbook. Someone asks whose hands were holding the flipbook, the response is that it was a professional hand model.

2:00 – The director, however, thinks the trilogy episodes are harder because you have to do design for a whole episode but three times.

2:25 – Meta moment, someone compliments this episode and then says “I wouldn’t say that if it weren’t true.” That leads to general laughter at the idea that everyone is neutral and evenhanded and always tells the truth during commentaries.

3:25 – Al Jean thinks the Iliad is a terrible story.

4:00 – Still talking about the Iliad and the Aeneid.

4:25 – Now they’re talking about the Odyssey.

4:40 – Animation note, the background on Olympus behind Barney, Quimby, and Captain McAllister is slowly moving clouds which were all cels that had to be slowly moved across the background.

5:30 – Long discussion of the advantages of digital animation.

6:15 – They’re joking about the Odyssey again.

6:40 – Laughing at Discus Stu.

7:00 – Al Jean recommends the made-for-TV 1997 version with Armand Assante as Odysseus. IMDb sez:

This lavish small-screen adaptation of Homer’s ancient epic–replete with exotic Maltese and Turkish locations, state-of-the-art special effects, and many bronzed muscles gleaming with sweat–chronicles the voyage home of a Trojan hero, Odysseus King of Ithaca, and includes many more scenes of his faithful, beautiful wife Penelope dodging leering suitors at home than Homer ever composed!

Sold!

7:45 – Jean’s pointing out more story problems with the real Odyssey as Homer floats down the river Styx. Apparently the band Styx was on Behind the Music around when they were making this.

8:15 – Generalized giggling at the fact that they’re stretching things out to fill time.

8:45 – These trilogy episodes used to have a writer for each segment, but after they “went Writers’ Guild” they just have one person write the whole draft now because its double scale if there’s three listed writers.

9:30 – When they were trying to come up with a Lisa segment they didn’t have a lot of choices on account of there aren’t that many famous historical stories with female leads. Someone mentions that the last time they did this they had to chance Johnny Appleseed to Connie Appleseed.

9:55 – Lots of laughter at the fact that the cow Homer was milking had eight teats.

10:30 – According to them, French accents are the funniest ones.

10:50 – Canadian trivia time, apparently no Coca-cola products were sold in Quebec for a while, but Pepsi was. This led the English speaking Canadians to deride the French speaking ones as “Pepsis”.

11:35 – Discussing how the writers screw over the animators by having big crowd shots like the army that’s on screen right now. This leads to a long discussion of designing characters.

12:15 – As an establishing shot of a castle is shown, someone says “It is a real luxury of animation that you don’t have to think about, ‘Well, can we pay for this set?’” That leads to someone actually bragging that you won’t see things like this on Two and a Half Men. That’s how little confidence they have in this show now, they feel the need to defend it against a formulaic sitcom starring Charlie Sheen and a relatable fat kid.  Ugh.

12:45 – Laughing about how screwed up movie accents are. The example cited is Doctor Zhivago where all the Russians have British accents.

13:30 – More discussions about the advantages of digital animation. Reflections are apparently very hard to do in regular cels.

14:20 – Discussion about how so many kids stories have terrible endings that parents like to skip. Case in point, here they had to make Lisa/Joan of Arc not actually get burned.

15:00 – Still on the needing to hurt characters without making things too graphic, Jean recalls way back in Season 3. In “When Flanders Failed” they originally had Bart getting badly beaten up by the bullies with black eyes and everything, but they toned it down.

16:05 – Steven Bochco got complimented here and was so flattered that he sent them some NYPD Blue merchandise.

16:15 – When they do storytelling episodes these days they don’t have time for the wraparound story (e.g. here they’re reading from a book in the living room to get to all the stories). Jean says they shortened the episodes between Seasons 13 and 14.

16:45 – More ye olde animation talk, when they used to do transparent effects they would do double exposure, filming it once without whatever needs to be transparent and once with. Now, of course, it’s the magic of computers and all that.

17:25 – One of the guys here met David Tennant at ComicCon one year. Tennant is also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he said that on the first day of rehearsals for Hamlet they watched this segment.

18:10 – Jean’s talking about MacHomer, but they can’t remember the name of the guy or the show.

18:45 – Jean’s now discussing Hamlet in general, and whether or not the whole thing is totally oedipal.

19:40 – Laughing about how many establishing shots of castles there are in this episode.

Take that, Charlie Sheen!

20:20 – Again discussing how much easier computers make things, this time it’s getting image examples of things with Google Images and the like.

21:15 – Long silence as things finally wind up.

21:35 – And now everyone laughs at the dance off ending.

22:10 – As the credits roll, someone tries to make a point about Lisa doing a Charles Nelson Reilly impression in the Joan. But there’s some crosstalk and I’m not sure if it got shot down or not as actually being true. Someone else has the good sense to joke at the fact that “actual information about the show” is being offered, “Heaven forefend.”