Thursday, March 27, 2008

Another moment of cognitive dissonance

Moe's has a pool table?!


Who knew??

I've adored The Simpsons from the get-go, but I can't ever recall noticing the pool table before (though admittedly I very seldom get to see any episodes since moving to China). I suppose the regulars propping up the bar are the thing that always sticks firmest in the memory.

Funnily enough, I was musing just the other day about how like Moe's my beloved Pool Bar was..... in every respect except the pool table!

11 comments:

The British Cowboy said...

The pool table comes and goes. It is definitively not there in many Moe-centric episodes, yet returns in others.

Also present in the bar for amusement of patrons are a TV, a jukebox, and a love tester machine. And a jar of pickled eggs.

Froog said...

And let's not forget the snake in the cash register!

I just can't recall any episodes in which a pool table appeared. I mean, the guys play poker, but they don't play pool.

The British Cowboy said...

I remember, though cannot place the episode, someone being slumped over the pool table when drunk.

That picture of Moe's is all wrong. The distance between the bar and the wall is much shorter (no room there for a pool table in fact) and there are red booths lining the wall.

I am a very very sad man.

The British Cowboy said...

Snake in register is not for the amusement of customers. Nor is Moe's shotgun and airproof panic room.

The question is, do you know what "the stinger" is?

Froog said...

Erm, it's either some kind of cocktail or a taser. Possibly a cocktail to be consumed while being tased??

No, I am not as sad as you.

I thought this picture of Moe's seemed all wrong, but I wasn't sure there was any consistent representation of it in the show. I found this while searching for a picture of Alistair Darling in Moe's (so far, I can only find thumbnails of it). As you might have heard, the nation is so incensed at its Chancellor yet again increasing the tax on beer that an online campaign has been started to get him barred from every pub in the land. The Moe's gag is part of that; the implication being that this will soon be the only place the poor guy can get a drink.

Although I always regret increases in the price of beer, it has been the habitual first resort of every Chancellor of the Exchequer I can think of. And 4p a pint doesn't really seem all that much these days; they were pretty regularly upping it by 1p or 2p per pint in the '70s and '80s, and that was a much higher percentage increase back then.

However that may be, I think it's a petty and objectionable response, an unjustified intrusion on the man's liberties (I don't suppose the poor bastard gets much chance to slip out to a pub anyway, but it's the principle of the thing). The man is just doing his job. And whether you happen to think he's doing it well or badly is purely a matter of politics; it is not at all akin to the anti-social behaviour which 'barring' is designed to curb. It is, I fear, an absurd misuse of a swingeing sanction, and one that tends to undermine rather than affirm the value of that sanction.

Froog said...

And surely the snake in the register was intended for the amusement of the customers, but only Homer found it funny.

The British Cowboy said...

The stinger is Moe's old boxing glove, wrapped with two strands of barbed wire.

He keeps it in his office, which is the ladies room, as there is never a call for it.

Tulsa said...

Stranded in the Rain;
Thinking of Froog, Blogstories;
Seek refuge in bars.

Froog said...

Ah yes, The Stinger. Now I remember. Thank you, Cowboy.

Do you have an opinion on Alistair Darling, and the campaign to bar him?

Froog said...

T, this is not the haiku thread.

I have to try to maintain some discipline around here, you know.

Is it raining AGAIN? It seems merely misty/smoggy around my way.

Anonymous said...

i know. i was browsing the posts and felt the need to haiku for whatever reason after reading about Moe's.

Ah, the Simpsons.... I've missed way to many episodes due to making myself non-accessible to Simpson airings.