“Marge, the comedy roast is an American tradition. It’s what gives us the freedom to criticize our social betters. Hey Flanders, you smell like manure!” – Homer Simpson
“Uh-oh, better cancel that dinner party tonight. Thanks for the nose news neighbor.” – Ned Flanders

This one might set a record for ignoring what’s going on in the episode in favor of unrelated chit chat.  (Al Jean even tells another joke, though it’s more of a story.)  However, I can’t really blame them, this is a clip show and there just isn’t much here.  When they spend two minutes reminiscing about that fab trip to London, well, all they missed was a bunch of things from other episodes.

Eight people on this one, including Groening and Deb Lacusta, who is Castellaneta’s wife and co-wrote this episode with him.

0:35 – Deb and Dan wrote this script on spec. She thinks they were probably watching Forrest Gump on television and thought he was just as clueless as Homer.

1:25 – This is the last clip show they did, but Jean sort of thinks of the storytelling episodes in a similar vein as “format breakers”. Also, give Jean some credit for knowing the history at least. They already showed the clip where Homer’s in the womb and swims around to that short arrangement of “The Blue Danube”, and Jean instantly nailed it as being from “Homer the Heretic”.

2:05 – Tom Hanks hassled them when he came in to do his voice for the movie, poking fun at some dumb idea or another he saw them working on. Good for him.

2:45 – Lacusta’s telling the story of the first time Castellaneta did Homer’s voice. They used him and Kavner because they were already on the cast at the Ullman show and didn’t have to pay them any extra.

4:30 – Still reminiscing about the old days on The Tracey Ullman Show, they used to interrupt rehearsals of the main stuff when Castellaneta would yell as Homer in this little isolation booth behind the bleachers where they were working on the shorts.

5:15 – More fun with the olden days as Lacusta tells us that they used to play the Simpsons shorts for the audience before tapings of Ullman’s live skits and the crowd loved them.

5:30 – This is clearly turning into the “Interview Deb Lacusta” hour. She and Castellaneta used to write and do voice over stuff for Second City. They still do improv stuff.

6:35 – Talking about how improv helps comedy writing.

7:10 – Someone, sounds like Matt Selman, is telling a story about how they used to make fun of John Frink for acting out jokes during writers meetings.

8:05 – Now they’re doing that thing where they joke about how they haven’t said anything about the episode. Granted, this is a clip show so I’m not sure how much there is to say, but still.

8:45 – Long discussions about Friar’s Club roasts.

9:10 – They’re complementing Castellaneta’s made up songs for Homer and then Jean plugs a comedy CD Dan did.

10:00 – Now we’re telling a story about a time when they went to London. This is like listening in on some old friends getting together. I hope they’re drinking.

10:40 – Brief mention of Agnes Skinner wearing a dress modeled on one worn by Jennifer Lopez. It takes about two seconds and now they’re talking about London again.

11:10 – Jean has lapsed into “kill time in an interview” mode and is now discussing British guest stars.

11:25 – They’re showing the clip where Homer skis down the mountain and the snow mounds hit his groin. Apparently, this is one of the most replayed clips when they do events.

11:40 – Now they’re talking about how as you get older you feel more for cartoon characters when they get hurt. Then Jean starts talking about how he liked horror movies more when he was a kid.

12:10 – A brief joke about not slipping in the shower becomes a rather long joke/discussion about not slipping in the shower.

12:35 – As the old people discussion rolls on, Jean mentions how when they started they were sympathetic with Bart, then Homer and now they’re “trending towards Grampa”.

13:15 – Things got quiet after they mentioned Richard Appel and The Cleveland Show, but Al Jean is there with a joke about a guy in World War II.

13:45 – Quiet again before someone realizes that Flanders and Lovejoy are supposed to be doing a Smothers Brothers routine.

14:30 – Now they’re remembering the time the Smothers Brothers actually came in. I’ll save you the suspense: they were very nice and everyone loved them.

14:50 – Laughing about the sudden appearance of Kang and Kodos.

15:45 – Talking about their parents now. Seriously.

16:45 – Groening thinks the first time Homer choked Bart was during the shorts.

17:40 – Still discussing how it’s okay for Homer to choke Bart because it’s a cartoon.

18:15 – They just showed the Liz Taylor “Daddy” clip from “Lisa’s First Word”, and Lacusta noticed it. This diverted them from their previous tangent to say that “contrary to rumor” Taylor was great. She didn’t storm out or anything.

18:45 – Long silence after they stopped talking about Liz Taylor. On screen it’s a montage of guest voices.

20:00 – Now they’re complaining about the lack of food at the People’s Choice Awards.

20:30 – The Billy Joel parody took Selman forever to do, and was originally more elaborate as he was trying to match the whole song.

21:10 – After another long silence, they ask Frink to do some improv to fill the last ten seconds. Frink demurs. It ends.