The Cracked Podcast

This episode of STME features one of the original Simpsons writers, Josh Weinstein discussing iconic Simpsons bit, "The Planet of The Apes: The Musical" and the writers room conversations that made it possible. Follow the Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stmepod/#Follow Josh Weinstein:@joshstrangehill

This Groundskeeper Willie video’s going to have it ALL - the length and girth of a Dan Carlin history podcast, the tightly-scripted humor of a VH1 Behind the Music OR BETTER, that’s just an entry-level promise, and of course we’ll learn a ton of fun facts by cataloging and explaining every single joke or reference Willie’s ever made in an ADD-fueled, Connections-inspired stream-of-consciousness frenzy! By the end of this mind-boggling journey, you’ll ken ‘em all. We’ll also create a full fictive timeline of Willie’s life, track his thirty-year relationship to Skinner and the janitorial arts, construct a couple After Hours-style pop culture theories, play a round of Scottish SLANG-WHANG, and get real about The Problem With Apu - I mean Willie - as a Scottish and blue collar stereotype. Plus I’ll even explain why and how he works as a sitcom character and engine for bits, like I did with my recent Arrested Development video, since people seemed to like that.Written and Edited by: Michael Swaim

This episode of STME features the one and only Bill Oakley, legendary Simpsons writer, co-creator of Mission Hill, and originator of the Simpsons "Steamed Hams" joke which spiraled into an internet phenomenon and later the namesake of his newfound food influencer career. We talk Simpsons, Mission Hill, The Mullets, and of course, burgers.

This week on The Simpson's Taught Me Everything, Michael Swaim sits down with Robert Brockway of Cracked fame to unpack14 Times Whole Towns Became Delusional Springfield-style.

Michael Swaim brings in Brian Brushwood (Scam School/Scam Nation, Modern Rogue), a magician and his expert witness in scams, for episode three of The Simpsons Taught Me Podcast to delve more into the musical con man influence behind the classic Simpsons episode, Marge vs. The Monorail. They also debate whether the end result determines if someone was truly conned or not.

On episode two of the Simpsons Taught Me Everything Podcast, Michael Swaim is joined by fellow comedy writer, Danielle Radford (Honest Trailers), to continue to delve into more Music Man references from the Conan O'Brien written episode, Marge vs. The Monorail. They also dissect Buddy Hackett's famous duck joke that he told on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the tantalizing romantic fiction of Elinor Glyn, Simpsons Logic Problems and so much more.

Each and every week, Michael Swaim & his guests are going to zoom way, way too far in on a single Simpsons bit and unpack it for a month's worth of jokes, Simpsons games, and education.

Everything Michael Swaim knows about the world, he learned from The Simpsons—and now, he's passing on all that useless information to you. On Simpsons Taught Me Everything, Michael Swaim takes a single joke from The Simpsons and pulls the thread of its origins, unraveling bits of history, pop culture, and otherwise random trivia we never knew we needed. Each week, he’s joined by comedians, Simpsons writers, and pop culture obsessives to break down the gag, decode the references, and school you on all things Simpsons. Class is in session.

Alex Schmidt is joined by Sarah Pappalardo (Reductress) and Dave Weigel (The Washington Post) for a look ahead at an election that’s practically happening tomorrow. Could one party take both houses of Congress? How is the Presidential race shaping up? And will American voters have to jack up their pandemic risk just to plunk down a ballot? Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/how-bizarre-or-great-will-2020-election-be

Alex Schmidt is joined by Adam Tod Brown and Chet Wild, the hosts of Unpopular Opinion’s “The 90s Sucked” podcast. They’re exploring huge, meaningful, world-altering ways the 1990s never stopped happening to us. They’ll also reveal which element of the ‘90s stuffs the nation’s landfills to this day, which ‘90s band happily played a show in a living room, and which ‘90s after-effects are most worth looking out for in 2020, 2024, and beyond.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/5-weird-ways-1990s-never-ended/

Alex Schmidt is joined by Jody Avirgan (FiveThirtyEight, 30 For 30) and Nicole Hemmer (historian, author 'Messengers Of The Right'). Jody & Nicole host a fantastic new podcast called 'This Day In Esoteric Political History'. On this show, the three of them share amazing stories from T.D.I.E.P.H., and from elsewhere, about America facing shutdown-level crises. It turns out the United States often faces pandemics, crashes, and weather cataclysms that disrupt national life for months or even years. Those events don't loom large in our collective historical memories, despite being important reminders of our country's resilience in the face of bizarre national danger...and reminders that thoughtful collective action is as American as apple pie, baseball, and revolting against the British.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/6-little-known-crises-lockdowns-u.s.-history

Alex Schmidt is joined by the incredible Andy Daly, star of ’Review’ and all of the rest of TV. This podcast is inspired by Dalton Wilcox’s long-simmering project ‘Bonanas For Bonanza’, a rewatch podcast (theoretically) tackling all 431 episodes of the 1959-1973 Western adventure TV show ‘Bonanza’. It turns out even the earliest 'Bonanza' episodes are quite odd -- which begs the question, how weird can a long-running show get? Alex and Andy answer that with examples (and audio!) from ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘One Tree Hill’, ‘Lassie’, and more surprising pillars of American television history.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/7-bizarre-moments-from-bizarrely-long-running-tv-shows/

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writer & “Creature Feature” podcast host Katie Goldin for a run through animal-specific myths springing up around coronavirus. They’ll break down whether nature *really* is “returning”, what the heck is going on with bats and tigers, and why your housecat is being smart about this situation. Also they’ll reveal some actually-fascinating true animal elements of the world shutting down that haven’t crossed your Twitter feed.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/bizarre-myths-amazing-facts-about-animals-coronavirus

Alex Schmidt is joined by New York Times-bestselling author Jason Pargin (pen name David Wong) for a close look at mistakes society needs to stop making now, and stop making always. Alongside that, they’ll explore ways you can help people survive this coronavirus thing, just by being thoughtful.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/common-beliefs-that-make-disasters-worse-with-jason-pargin/

Alex Schmidt calls up Chicago White Sox play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti, to explore what it’s like simulating a sports season that may never happen outside of his PlayStation 4. They’ll also examine the weird way virtual sports can turn meaningful, discover how Taiwan resumed real baseball a week ago, and dig into sports’ role as a canary in the coal mine of modern American society.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/sports-in-time-coronavirus-with-jason-benetti

Alex Schmidt is joined by Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion, MTV, Playboy) and Dan Hopper (Ranker, The New Yorker, CollegeHumor) for a look at some things COVID-19 put on hold -- specifically the most foolish, inefficient, straight-up bad things in the entire world. So throw on some headphones and have a fun & critical think about everything from the Olympics to April Fools Day to an insanely wasteful daily practice we should’ve questioned a lot sooner.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/6-things-shut-down-by-coronavirus-that-shouldnE28099t-return/

Alex Schmidt is joined by journalist Olga Khazan, author of ‘Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World’. They’ll take a deep dive into personal stories and scientific studies about life as a weirdo. Discover the cultural, social, mental, and physical ramifications of living outside society’s norms. Also stick around for the surprising upsides of that kind of life. Because here’s one way being alive is more interesting than people think it is: being “weird” can be a person’s greatest strength.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/the-surprising-scientific-truth-about-living-as-outsider/

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion) and Jeff May (Sideshow’s Side Show) for the strangest, silliest, oddest psychological warfare ever plotted by national governments. Discover tales of elected officials and professional militaries dreaming up pranks, toys, holograms, and more bizarre tools for crushing their enemies...even if the execution of those plots would boggle the mind.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/13-insane-psy-ops-real-governments-tried-to-pull-off/

Alex Schmidt is joined by Billy Wayne Davis (Conan, Adult Swim) and Kandice Martellaro (Stan Against Evil, Femmebot PhD) for the silliest minutiae that slipped through the cracks of IMPORTANT HISTORY. Listen for surprisingly wacky elements of World War 2, human spaceflight #1, the Battle of Agincourt, and more events nobody remembers as embarrassing and awkward (even though they should).Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-little-known-dumb-details-big-historical-events/

Alex Schmidt is joined by Siobhan Thompson (Rick and Morty, Dimension 20) and Andrew Ti (Mixed-ish, Yo Is This Racist?) for a trip through the strangest canon ever grafted onto a TV show. They’ll turn up late-season canon decisions that broke entire television universes. Also be sure to listen for strange network promos and a stranger talk show appearance that make your favorite science fiction worlds too bizarre to comprehend.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-tv-shows-that-secretly-gave-themselves-insane-canon/

Alex Schmidt is joined by Dan Hopper (Ranker, CollegeHumor, The Washington Post) for a look at movie & TV locations that fans are pilgrimaging into oblivion. Discover the most neighborhood-snarling, pizza-chucking, monastery-crumbling behaviors in the whole world of fandom. Find out how one monkey's paw-style studio deal turned part of Spain blue forever. And find out how Viewers Like You can be more thoughtful toward Hollywood locations than the average 'Joker' Instagrammer.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/8-famous-movie-tv-locations-ruined-by-fans/

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Kate Willett (The Late Show, ‘Reply Guys’) and Eli Yudin (‘What A Time To Be Alive’) for a look at the weirdest ways the children of rich maniacs bought themselves professional careers. Listen for pop stardom, sports glory, and more careers you can try on like a hat if your dad is a dictator/mafioso/Bond villain inspiration.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/7-weird-jobs-children-rich-maniacs-bought-themselves

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians & alien comedy experts David Christopher Bell (Gamefully Unemployed, "Fox Mulder Is A Maniac") and Moujan Zolfaghari (Mission To Zyxx, 'At Home With Amy Sedaris'). They’re digging into the most common lazy media tropes, frustrating hoaxes, and generally confusing myths about aliens. So throw on some headphones, increase your media literacy, and be ready to spot the REAL signs of extraterrestrials, if and when we ever get them.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/10-regular-things-we-should-all-stop-mistaking-aliens/

Alex Schmidt is joined by special guest Jesse Thorn (Bullseye, Jordan Jesse Go, Judge John Hodgman, THE LIST GOES ON)! They’ll explore the surprisingly common phenomenon of two famous people meeting up, hanging out, and (often) having an extremely weird time together. So throw on your headphones for tales of everyone from Elvis to Amelia Earhart to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince having an odd hang with a fellow world-famous awkward person.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-bizarre-surprising-stories-famous-people-hanging-out

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writers Gonzalo Cordova and Alan Denton. They’ll explore the biggest recent movies, and the extraordinarily strange work that went into making them. Find out which Oscar movie got patched like a video game, several days after it was in theaters. Discover which animal overran the set of your favorite action movie franchise. And keep listening for the set of international financial crimes that built Hollywood’s hottest production company.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-major-recent-movies-with-secretly-bizarre-productions

Alex Schmidt is joined by the incredible Dana Gould for a trip through world-famous scandals that somehow never get a closer look. With each story, they’ll dig into the forgotten and astonishing details of those scandals that were apparently too mind-blowing for the public to remember. So throw on some headphones, and discover the ways Elizabeth Holmes, O.J. Simpson, the Enron fellas, and more infamous maniacs are much more bizarre than you realized.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-infamous-scandals-with-crazy-details-everybody-forgot/

Alex Schmidt and special guest Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) are exploring the ways being afraid of everything (an easy action) can stop us from being free. Discover the decades-long tradition of some Americans wanting to give up everything in exchange for not needing to think, the centuries-long tradition of people inciting fake panics, and the reasonable ways you can help change things for the better.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-fear-based-democracies-arenE28099t-free-with-jason-pargin/

Alex Schmidt is joined by the one and only Kai Ryssdal (Marketplace, Make Me Smart) for a look at surprising, strange, and shocking stories from all over the U.S. economy. Discover an international pig flu, a 26-word statement that built the modern Internet, and more amazing ways cash is ruling everything around you. By the way, if you’re an American listener, you spent the past few years funding an astonishingly huge bailout. Surprise! Listen for details!Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/5-parts-u.s.-economy-that-are-stranger-than-you-think

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/writers Caitlin Gill and Alex Watt for a look at the surprising number of times movies, TV, and gaming gave heroic powers to the exact right person. They’ll explore stories of regular people who saved a life thanks to skills gained randomly from cartoons, sitcoms, ‘World Of Warcraft’, and more silly entertainment.Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-times-pop-culture-accidentally-taught-people-to-save-lives/