From: garvey@simpsonsarchive.com   
      
   Yikes, this was "cringe" as the vlog kids say. Curious that it aired the same   
   night as the (sequentially next in line) repeat of Lisa the Boy Scout, since   
   they were both full of tiny vignettes of noncanonical stuff and neither really   
   seemed that great,    
   but this one seems as if it will date more quickly. I was reminded as well of   
   last season's two-in-a-row of You Won't Believe... and Bart the Cool Kid, but   
   eventually I got shades of Behind the Laughter, which was still a bit more   
   cohesive and less    
   trendy. And as nice as it was to get a regular credits sequence for the first   
   time in almost 3 years (last was ZABF12/13 I think), after all the special   
   themed treatment of the rest of the episode (and opening credits/execs), it   
   felt like a major missed    
   opportunity for both restyling and having "bonus content".   
      
   Previous episode stuff   
   BABF19, UABF07/08/21: see above   
   CABF01: Lisa is wearing a "Dirt First" shirt   
   AABF17: Nessie is on Frink's conspiracy board (which is not full of specific   
   episode references)   
   7G02: Bart's Scrabble rack in the panic room has "KWYJIBO" tiles, an actually   
   enjoyable callback from 738 episodes ago   
      
   Not meta   
   Lenny says they're in episode 751 of their podcast, which is so-   
   lose-yet-so-far considering this is episode 740 of The Simpsons!   
      
   The day the music died   
   I'm not sure what date that actually was, but it must have been recently that   
   series music editor (from episode 1) Chris Ledesma earned his dedication at   
   the end of tonight's episode. Prominent and longrunning position, but it still   
   may not mean the    
   dedication sticks in repeats.   
      
      
   Another groundbreaking airdate   
   It only took 740 episodes, but an episode has finally premiered on January 1!   
   Many offseason and winter holiday dates remain in addition to a handful of   
   normal dates never to see an episode debut (see my notes on UABF05 exactly one   
   production season ago    
   when 1/2 was checked off), but this is still a cause for celebration. Other   
   (semi-)likely contenders aren't due until September 2024.   
   For what it's worth, the other January 1sts on the show's typical day of the   
   week have been either episode repeats (1995, 2012, and also 2023) or   
   movies/other shows (2006, 2017).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)