Retrospecticus

Retrospecticus is BACK!!! It’s the start of season two and we’ve got “Bart Gets An ‘F'” and Transnistria to discuss. Along the way we take in our Christmas presents, camera angles in a cartoon, more Irish names than you can shake a stick it, the bad blood between the Moldovan Popular Front and the Popular… Read More »

Episode 13 is here, and put a fork in season one, it’s done! We discuss “Some Enchanted Evening” and the Burmese elections of 1990 that didn’t see Aung San Suu Kyi come to power. Along the way we’ll also dicuss QEDcon, fourth wall breaking, a song that was the scourge of nineties clothes shops, the… Read More »

It’s a tongue twisting Retrospecticus this time, as Garreth discovers that “sideshow” and “slideshow” are a deadly combination in “Krusty Gets Busted”, and Tom tries to avoid Baltic names during The Singing Revolution. Plus: wacky early plans for Marge and Krusty, the least essential cultural artefact of the nineties, compound flags and the return of… Read More »

It’s episode eleven of Retrospecticus, and we’re discussing Bart’s (first) trip to France in “The Crepes Of Wrath”. Tom tells the story of the election of the first democratically chosen East German prime minister, which hastened the end of the Cold War. We also tackle reds under the bed, laugh at Ian Maxton-Graham’s small automobile,… Read More »

This week on the show we discuss “Homer’s Night Out” and London’s Poll Tax Riots. Along the way we take in a schism in the world of international darts, a Simpsons character appearing in the flesh and whether or not anarchy was de riguer at the time (spoiler: it wasn’t). And after ten episodes, the… Read More »

This week on the show we discuss “Life on the Fast Lane”, an episode that sees Homer buy a bowling ball for himself as a Birthday present and Marge tempted by Jacques, a suave bowling coach with a French-ish accent. For the history we tell the story of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of… Read More »

This episode we talk about “The Telltale Head”, a Simpsons morality tale featuring bullying, stealing, terrible life advice and decapitation. For this history bit, we tell the story of the 1990 Nicaraguan election, the background of which contains revolution, counter revolution, hostage taking, dodgy CIA arms dealings, a highly successful literacy program and assassination with… Read More »

This week on the show we discuss Call of the Simpsons, the one where Homer buys an RV and eventually gets mistaken for Bigfoot. The discussion ends up meandering into a rant about Mr Blobby, so look out for that! For the history we talk about the UK and Argentina restoring diplomatic relations, but really… Read More »

This week Tom and Garreth talk about Tom’s favourite episode from Series 1 of the Simpsons, “Moaning Lisa”, an episode which deals with important topics such as video boxing and Lisa Simpson going through an existential crisis. It was first aired on the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison, so naturally the history bit… Read More »

Join your hosts Tom and Garreth for another episode of Retrospecticus! On this show we talk about the episode “Bart the General” and discuss the opening of the first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union. Tom corrects himself on some Panamanian flagwrong from the previous episode, Garreth tells us about a conspiracy theory on the existence… Read More »

In this episode of the show Garreth tackles the rather strange Simpsons episode “There’s No Disgrace Like Home”, the first to be penned by legendary Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss. For the history, Tom tells the story of the roller coaster ride that was the life of Manuel Noriega, former military leader of… Read More »

Things take a fairly dark turn this episode as we discuss Homer’s Odyssey, which begins with Homer Simpson tying a boulder around his waist and going to a river to commit suicide. Garreth tells us about the legend of John Henry, the steel-driving man. Tom lightens the mood with the story of Robert Tappan Morris,… Read More »

It’s our first episode with a special guest! We take a look at the Simpsons episode “Bart the Genius”. Tom has a revelation about the “Staphylococci virus”, Garreth tells us about all things banana related, and we are joined by Simon Singh, author of “The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets” to talk about the maths… Read More »

In the first proper episode of Retrospecticus, we take a look at “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, the first full episode of The Simpsons and the only one to be broadcast in the 1980’s. For the modern history, we tell the story of the Romanian Revolution that overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu. If you’d like to… Read More »