Is it time for The Simpsons to end?

Bert Kreischer reminiscies about his partying days being featured in Rolling Stone and sharing his wellness routines during his 2023 tour.

Dusty Slay discusses the life-changing benefits of sobriety on his comedy career.

George Clooney is credited with improving Adam Sandler's wardrobe.

Vulture interviews David Letterman about the early days of his late-night show, emphasizing Johnny Carson's impact. 

And a critique of 'The Simpsons,' arguing its decline since 1997 and concerns about the quality of recent episodes and voice talent issues.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Kalaroga Shark Media. Hello Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news.
He was back in nineteen ninety seven, Rolling Stone called
Bert Krescher, a sixty year undergraduate, the top partier at
the number one party school in the country, which was
Florida State University. Now Bert Kraser, three decades later, tells

(00:26):
USA Today he's still partying hard. Bert says, I'd argue
it's probably even worse. My game hasn't changed much, but
I take bigger stints of sobriety now and I'm healthier now.
I work out every day, I get hydrating ivs probably
twice a week, I drink water, and I'm more cognizant
of my sleep and my recovery. Now. What makes the
Bert Krescher tour bus, He says, A ton of vodka,
which is his own brand, because all comedians have to

(00:48):
have some sort of sidehouso these days for some reason, water, snacks,
and a full gym which is stowed in the bus bay.
During his twenty twenty three tour, Bert Krescher packed three
semi trucks with even more workout equipment. Boy, you've got
some budget, dude. Bert said, we had five electric bikes,
a cold plunge of sauna, a full gymnasium with rowers

(01:08):
and assault bikes, compression boots with recliners. How much money
is this dude making? He lost forty five pounds on
the tour and said, I'm so much healthier when I'm
on the road, without a doubt. Dusty Sleigh has been
sober for over a decade. He told Fox. I like
to party. I like to get into it, and so
every night comedy became a party, and it's not sustainable.
I just wasn't feeling good. I wouldn't remember my jokes.
Getting sober changed my whole life. More than just comedy,

(01:29):
but changed my life. He wondered, will I still be
funny without the booze? When I quit drinking? I thought
I might quit comedy because all my jokes are about drinking.
I'm much better at comedy now now I have all
these ideas. My brain's not constantly clogging flooded with poison.
You know, Dusty said, I don't care if people drink,
but for me, it changed my life and made everything
better for me. I'd be a total wreck. I wouldn't
be sitting here, and if I was, I'd be sweating,

(01:49):
even though it's heavily air conditioned. I'd sweat and you'd think,
have you been drinking? And I probably would have been
I've had a beer before I'd go. You guys got
any beers around here, and you guys would be like,
this is a news station buddy who tells us George
Clooney has achieved the impossible. He got Adam Sandlor to
dress better. Nice job, George Clooney, although I kind of
liked knowing that Adam Sandler is the one person in

(02:11):
the world who dresses worse than I do. If you
think I'm wearing some sort of ratty sweatshirt and some
sweatpants and a baseball cap right now, you're right. But
even that is probably better than the baggy basketball shorts
look Sandler normally goes for. But now he's all George
Clooney fancy pants. Colooney told people, I've actually been making
Adam wear suits. Don't you think he looks nicer instead
of those big, baggy shorts, Pony said, Adam Sandler, a

(02:33):
great dramatic actor, is the sweetest man in the world.
I love him. He's a dear friend. And the fact
I got to work with him again is great. Sandler
says he doesn't really think about his traditional baggy look.
He says, it's as funny as hell. Whatever one of
my kids or their friends talk to me about it.
My wife's like, what are we talking about right now?
How did that happen? Even when we were younger, others
would say, would you put on something better than that?
Your wife's dressed so beautifully. My wife would say, he's

(02:53):
comfortable like that. Let him do that. Leave him alone. Yeah,
She's like, dude's making five hundred million dollars a year.
Leave him alone. He can wear Peggy Shortz. Shut up.
Jay Kelly opens in Select theater is November fourteenth, will
stream on Netflix December fifth, People saying it's an Oscar
worthy performance by the great dramatic actor Adam Sandler, So
I'm looking forward to that one. Hopefully it's in the
pantheon of Sandler movies, the great movies like uncut Gems,

(03:17):
Space Movie, Basketball one and the two with Drew Barrymore,
everything else complete garbage, but hopefully this one is up
in that top tier. I saw this as part of
my Adam Sandler googling. Far Out Magazine writes even though
an alarming percentage of his filmography is made up of awful,
awful comedies. Adam Sandler seems like a nice guy. I
agree with everything in that sentence. It is made up

(03:39):
of awful, awful comedies, and he does seem like a
nice guy. And most of the people who know are
of work with him think the same thing too. The
most annoying thing about Sandler, apart from some of the
characters he played, is that he knows he's been coasting
for years, if not decades. Every now and then he'll
show up in something like Punch Love, Uncut Gems or
Hustled or Mine everyone he's actually a great actor. Then
it's back to mugging for the camera and happy goomore sequels.

(04:01):
Did I write this? Maybe I wrote this and I
forgot I wrote this. Anyway, the point of this article
is to spotlight Andy Kindler, who has added himself to
the list of people who believe that Sandler squandered his
potential by becoming inordinately wealthy. Kindler, it's old last I've
been making fun of him for years just for the
fact that his movies are never reviewed. He doesn't even

(04:23):
put them out to be reviewed, and just consider the
Pixels movie. It doesn't sound like you listen to the
whole pitch. Kindler then talked about The Ridiculous Six, saying, basically,
I said that Native Americans who walked off the set
of the movie said they'd prefer another genocide. They'd prefer
once again to be slaughtered by the white man in
the stay on this movie. I don't know if it's
that bad. It's close. What bugs Andy Kindler is? He

(04:45):
used to be a huge Adam Sandler fan until Adam
became a movie star, which left him feeling that Adam
Sandler could be doing better, but for some reason decided
to go with the money. I wonder why he decided
to go with the money. Is it? Let me think?
Is it the money? Look? He puts out terrible comedies,
But was Adam Sandler the re Odd Comedy Festival? He
was not. At least he's like putting in the work
to make happy gilmore too, So I'll give him that.

(05:05):
He hooks up his friends. His daughters are some of
the best actresses in Hollywood, so he's lucky enough that
he knows them that he can cast them in the film.
Is it terrible? Of course, it's terrible, but it's not
the reodd comedy Festival. Am I becoming an Adam Sandler fan? Hmmm.
Valcher spoke with David Letterman. Hey, Dave, any specific memories
of the first episode of Late Night with David Letterman.

(05:26):
Dave said, well, we had several first shows, the first
show on the daytime show, the first show on the
NBC show, on the first show on the CBS show,
and it's always like you're getting ready for the Rose Parade.
You have the Rose Parade, and then it's so, geez,
what are we doing tomorrow? I think that was typical
of the daytime show, the late night show, and then
the late show. After all of the effort, all the
energy goes on that first show, now what do we do.
It's not until about a month and a half to
establish a rhythm and production that will hold you, that'll

(05:48):
prop you up for the rest of the run. But
until you're comfortable with that, and it's going to be
a struggle. Vulture asked about Johnny Carson's involvements, and Johnny
was a producer of a Late Night with David Letterman
at the beginning there, so that made the man you
idolized your boss, or at least your partner. Was he
a silent partner or did he chime in? Dave said,
to my memory, Johnny couldn't have cared less except whatever
the cut of the budget he got. We're of no

(06:09):
threat to him. He was still the king of the heap.
To him, we were just all right, call me when
they're canceled. He was always very nice. He'd have me
on from time to time we would promote the show.
I think he found it amusing, and who knows. I
never really asked him what he thought of the show,
but always felt like, if you're not as good as Johnny, really,
is there any point in leaving Indiana. But if you
look at Johnny's work, now, my god, it was just solid.
Pick one night of the week the first year of
the eighth year, of the twentieth year. He's just rock solid.

(06:31):
He's like the very best home healthcare person you could afford.
He's constant, doesn't miss a beat, doesn't get you worried.
I mean that, let me jump in there. Dave's so
right about Carson. Doesn't get you worried again. It's another
mark of a great host of just steady in the
chair driving the train, not going to go off the rails,
not going to get the network canceled. Dave said, I

(06:52):
always felt like I felt short of that. I feel
like everybody else feels short of doing it. The only
person I think didn't fall short of that was Regis Philbin.
Regis was, you know, get on him when we hit
your stop, because I'm gonna keep going. He was fantastic,
and Johnny the best since Regis came up. I'll tell
a quick readis story. I've told it before. So I
worked with Regis a few years. He would come into

(07:12):
Serious and host bing Crosby Christmas Radio. He's a big
fan of being Crosby and we wanted to have a
cool celebrity host it. So Regis would come in and
one year somebody on the serious end forgot to order
a car for mister Philbin, and he was standing in
front of the building waiting for a car that didn't come.
He eventually got a car himself. He comes in and
he's all Regis Philbin and he's churning it on. He's

(07:33):
doing ninety percent the act ten percent letting me know
that he's annoyed, and he's right, we're we're totally in
the wrong here. We didn't order m car. He's out
in the cold. We're wrong, we're wrong, wrong, wrong, We're wrong.
Johnny Max's wrong. Staff is wrong. We're wrong. But so
it's like ninety percent the fun ten percent give me
the business. And he's like yeah, and you know, and
I had to pay for my own car to get here.
Now I don't know what made me do this, but
I took out one hundred dollar bill for some reason.

(07:55):
I had one hundred dollars bill and I put it
on the counter and I looked him the eye and
I smiled, Ago, we good, and he laughed and he goes, okay,
he didn't take my money, of course, but he's just
just like all right. I think we had an irish
thing going on. Anyway. I loved working with Regis Philbin,
a pros pro. One of the things I love working
with people who are professional and understand, hey, we're here

(08:16):
to do a job. Let's knock this out professionally. People
that can hit their marks, people that can read a script,
people that can do things in one or two takes.
I love it. Now, Jay Leno, you know this guy,
he's the kind of guy that like, weighs in on
late night television as if he has any expertise on
the subject, and you know, when he's not out doing
charity work, he's just the worst. I saw this story
here from Late Night Er. I guess. According to Bill

(08:37):
Carter's book The War for Late Night, jay Leno could
spend five hours straight choosing material for each evening's program,
pouring over jokes until someone dragged him to a rehearsal.
Jay Leno hated vacations and really went to parties. Listen
to this guy working on the show. Between seasons, he
spent his time off working the comedy club circuit, Bill
Carter wrote, some might call him a robot with no

(08:58):
apparent inner life, for all didn't care in or did
it even seem to disagree all that much. Guy seems
like the worst OT's called Costco, who did not play
the Rioda Comedy Festival. In fact, went out of her
way to make sure we knew she didn't. She's figured

(09:19):
out another way to make money. She's teamed up with
PF Changs. She's using her social media to introduce items
from PF Chang's revamped menus, such as the return of
the chain's popular grolic noodles. She's promoting their new eight
to ninety nine cocktail options like the Laichi Martini, which
she says gives elegance and mystery sounds like me not
me not Johnny Mack sounds like Otsgo Go tells us

(09:42):
the Jade Margarita is rich with flavor and vacation vibes,
and aunces that the grolic noodles have flavor boulder than
my wardrobe and my personality. Again, nothing bold about my
walterrobe or my personality. She's speaking about herself. The new
menu include sushi roles like Spicy Tuna, Kung Pow Dragon roll,
and chimped Ti, and entres like Kung Poun chicken. Customers

(10:03):
can now either select medium or traditional entrees sizes. The
eight ninety nine cocktail collection also includes seasonal specials like
the Blood Orange Margarita and the par Teeny And On
The Guardian, George Francis Lee wants The Simpsons to end.
Lee wrights the Simpsons hasn't been good since nineteen ninety seven,
which means the show has been in decline for as

(10:24):
long as I've been alive. Now we're beset with season
after season of awful awful episodes. Ironically, the show is
already lampooting the growing difficulty in keeping itself fresh all
the way back in ninety five. As Troy McClure said
in The Simpsons one hundred and thirty eighth episode Spectacular,
who knows what adventures they'll hat between now in the
time the show becomes unprofitable. Boy that was a good episode,

(10:46):
and boy that episode was thirty years ago. The yikes
that went fast. Lee writes, it's impossible to explain succinctly
why modern Simpsons doesn't work. It's not funny, sure, but
Springfield the ends are now oversimplified characteratures of themselves, something
so in ned Flanders transition from a well meeting and
church attending neighbor to a relentless Christian fundamentalist that it's
spawned the term flanderization. Recently, the Simpsons has suffered more

(11:10):
by the loss of some of its iconic voice talent.
The voice of Miss Croboppol passed away in twenty thirteen,
the voice of Martin the Bully passed away, and the
voice of Millhouse retired last year. Then there's the declining
voice quality of actor Julie Kavner, whose voice for Marge
now sounds as pleasant of polyp surgery. That's harsh, and
Harry Shearer when he voices characters like mister Burns and

(11:32):
Ned Flanders, he comes off like he's doing a bad impression.
How long until Ai is used to skirt the limitations
of actor mortality. Hank Azaria, the voice behind Bartender Moe
and the ax Up, who has already written an op
ed predicting that very outcome. Now they're making another Simpsons movie,
I'm paraphrasing here. Not only that, but Fox has commissioned
four more seasons, meaning that when it hit season forty

(11:53):
and twenty twenty eight, the Simpsons will be the same
age as Homer is in the show. When the doughnuts
start to go stale, you don't keep them around for
another twenty seven years. You chuck them out. That is
your comedy news on a Monday. Have a great day.