Few movies have been as shaped by their pop culture legacy as Godzilla (1954), and hey, that’s the premise of this podcast! Adam and Nate watch this influential monster movie for the first time on its 70th anniversary alongside “Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo” (S10E23), the Simpson family’s controversial vacation to Japan.

Also in this episode:

• Godzilla vs. Kong (or is it Godzilla x Kong?): We compare the rampages of these two iconic movie monsters

• How the American adaptation, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), influenced how the world understood the original for 50 years

• What movie has the most Simpsons actors besides The Simpsons Movie?

• Something called an “oxygen destroyer”

After a short break, we’ll be back in June with Batman: The Movie (1966)—the Adam West one—and the Simpsons send-up of superhero movies, “Radioactive Man” (S7E2).

Ah, The Natural (1984), a classic American tale about… an underdog baseball team, a serial killer, a love triangle, a match fixing scandal, a freak accident in the outfield, and a magic baseball bat? We’ll get into it, along with “Homer at the Bat” (S317), a star-studded Simpsons episode that stretched the reality of the show.

Also in this episode:

• Randy Newman (yes, of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” fame) delivers a banger of a score that The Simpsons parody again and again

• Is all the plot nonsense worth it for that astonishing Hollywood ending?

• Bump Bailey and other old-time Swartzweldian baseball nicknames

• How can a star like Robert Redford get beyond roles like “baseball Jesus”?

Next time… GODZILLA.

…The 1954 version. Also, “Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo” (S10E23).

With the 96th annual Academy Awards complete, Adam and Nate review the night’s festivities and finally get a chance to talk about recent movies for a change.

Also in this episode:

• Highlights from the show, from its “perfectly cromulent” host* to Al Pacino’s big moment—hoo-ah!

• Adam and Nate’s (very different) lists of top 10 movies of 2023

• A trivia game about Best Picture Winners parodied on The Simpsons, fresh from the Simpsons Movie Reference Database

Next time, we return to our regularly scheduled programming with The Natural (1984) and The Simpsons’ ode to baseball “Homer at the Bat” (S3E17).