At first, I didn't want to start a feud with Herb Powell by doing this video. But then I realized he is a fictional cartoon character that can't do anything about it. This is another reason why Herb Powell sucks.
If you’re targeting shallow characters for the “X sucks” series, I recommend putting the “get him fellas” guy from last exit to springfield on your hit list. He’s such a little weasel and the “Lets get him fellas” guy definitely sucks. He’s been treated too kindly by Simpsons fans for far too long.
@@TheRealJims ha,must be the hidden duds video, i did watch the extra seconds. Can you please re do the subtitles as they don't match up with what you say. I think you put your script but then make changes. The sentence about nephews and nieces is different from what you said.
For Herb to have become destitute so quickly probably meant he was spending well outside his means. So I can believe he was poor in Changing of the Guardian, he probably overspent his fortune and whatever he was making off the baby monitor business couldn't keep up. Though he probably was better off the second go-around if he could afford a phone plan that included an answering machine. He's probably "living in a rundown bachelor pad" poor, rather than "living in the streets" poor.
Considering the huge mansion and everything for one man... Yes, he definitely was. That he went from super rich to completely homeless so quickly shows he's poor both with money and relationships. Like, he literally had NO ONE that would help him? That's so telling.
@@tully6648excellent point!! The idea that a man could be as influential as him and didn’t have even one couch to surf is telling - hell, he definitely could’ve crashed with Homer if he’d wanted, he clearly wasn’t willing to for some prideful bs. Man was the harbinger of his own downfall
What's amusing is that Two Dimes was practically written just so the team could give Herb a happy ending, and yet the DVD commentary and phone gag afterwards implies they had a similar realization that "Wait a minute? Herb's actually a jerk!". :P It's almost a funny in-joke, that they made such a charismatic and emotionally manipulative character that he fooled everyone, even THE WRITERS THEMSELVES, into not only giving him a bail out, but believing that they OWED him one.
How about "Jacqueline Bouvier Sucks" next? In "Moaning Lisa", her advice to Marge, just woof! In "Bart vs. Thanksgiving ", she comes into the Simpson household from the back side, and just so happens to walk by the kitchen window to spy on Marge's kitchen activities to look for something to nitpick, and then her very first words to Marge in the episode are "I have laryngitis, and it hurts to talk, so I'll just say one thing: You never do anything right." In "Lady Bouvier's Lover", she dumps Grampa for Mr. Burns at the drop of a hat, and scoffs at Marge's objection to marrying Mr. Burns, "That man is scum!", to which Jacqueline replies, "Then, call me Mrs. Scum..." Finally, she outright refuses Grampa's ask to marry him instead of Mr. Burns, albeit also dumping Mr. Burns at the altar, which is as close to her not sucking as we will ever get with her. Oh, and how she treats Homer in both flashback episodes "The Way We Was" and "I Married Marge", ugh. Clearly, Patty and Selma take after her...
I'm pretty sure that "Then, call me Mrs. Scum..." was said by Selma when Bart objected against he marriage with sideshow Bob in 03x21 The Black Widower. I've just seen the episode.
@@Toraryuko Oh, you're right. Though, I'm pretty sure Marge and Jackie had a similar conversation. What is it with Bouvier women being terrible with picking husbands? Sorry, Marge...
That "It doesn't matter how you feel on the inside, it's what shows on the outside that counts, so bury those feelings all the way down" thing her mother told her in Moaning Lisa really explains a lot about Marge's character and why she puts up with everything that she does.
This video is like Succession to me lmao. But seriously, being able to actually see an in depth look at how and why Herb Powell is a terrible person despite how the narrative frames him actually makes me more empathetic towards him while also completely agreeing with your points. The idea of Herb being so scarred by his business failings as the Simpsons came into his life that he now views all family relationships as a means to a financial end is so tragic, it makes me feel bad for him while also still seeing him as completely in the wrong. I love how this video was able to add some depth to a controversial guest star character while still 100% agreeing he sucks.
I feel bad for Homer. He did the damndest to make his half-brother proud, but all of that led to him being disowned. And even after that Homer still held next to no grudges toward him. Poor guy.
Act 1: The Simpson house gets broken because of a natural disaster, meanwhile Homer gets a lot of money in a crazy way. The family is planning to use that for something important like fixing the house when Herb knocks at the door. Act 2: Herb is acting very friendly to Homer and the family and then he ‘casually’ mentions that he’s having some financial difficulties and he asks for his brother new fortune. This time all the family is hesitant because they really need to fix the house. That’s when Herb snaps at them yelling about how Homer ruined his company and says something very rude about Marge and the kids. He’s about to leave the house, but Homer stops him to punch him in the face and then kicks him out. Act 3: Homer is still angry about Herb but Marge convinces him to forgive him. Homer goes to Herb to make amends, when the step-brother hands him a lawsuit for aggression and tells him that if he gives the money he will drop it and tell them that they will be a family again. Homer is about to accept the deal, when Marge and the kids arrive and rebuke Herb for how terrible he’s always been to his brother and how callous he’s been to appear only when he needs money. They conclude by saying: “Go ahead! Sue us! We have an entire pile of lawsuits!” In the end the family uses the money to fix the house and turns out that Herb’s lawsuit was just a gamble to get their money. Herb’s try to be forgiven for his behavior but Homer kicks him out of his life
Treehouse of Horror where Herb goes crazy due to yet another bankrupcy and tries to kill Homer, thinking everything will be fine once Homer's out of the picture. Soon after Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?, Mr Burns offers to buy the patent for the baby translator in exchange for a huge sum of money. Once Herb gives him the patent and asks for the money, Burns acts oblivious and says stuff like "what money? which causes Herb to get furious and attack Burns. He gets restrained by Burns' bodyguards and ends up being sued for assault, Herb tries to argue that Burns stole his entire livelihood away but Burns just keeps acting oblivious to it. Herb loses all his money, after the trial Smithers tells him "Sorry, Burns has recently started taking memory loss pills as a joke. No I don't get it either." Suddenly he gets a phone call from Homer, he tells him that he's poor again and than Homer ends the call. "Oh, too good to help out your stinkin' brother, huh? HOMER!!!!" Idk what happens next
I absolutely love these two episodes, especially the second one, but that’s because I’m not overly fussed about whether Herb is “good” or “bad” person. I’be never been too invested in his emotional arc, if indeed he has one. When it comes down to it, they’re just really really funny episodes, and Danny DeVito’s performance absolutely crackles with energy and charisma. That’s what these episodes are really about for me.
Man,i really miss this character. I really liked him (especially since he was a missing part of Homer's youth) It sucks how criminally underused he became throughout the show's course :(
Herb sounds like a broken man with a history of trauma. Perhaps his upbringing was very difficult, thus he was constantly on survival mode. Without any warm and connections, he only saw money and wealth as a indicator of one's worth in the world, hence he strived to make to the top of the corporate world. He was at a mid-life crisis when the Simpsons arrived, and he immediately bonded with Marge, Maggie, Liza and Bart as they were the family and childhood he never had. That's one of the reason he shirks his responsibility at his company, he even told Bart how he just wanted to watch cartoons all day, etc. His anger towards Homer was misdirected as it appears he never showed his vulnerabilities, but he opened up to the Simpsons. The results, he let his emotions override his logical mind and it brought him ruins. I wish they brought him back on the show or at least referenced him. Not him being poor, but maybe how he's still rich and reconnected with his humanity. That he's out saving people, like Moe.
@camelopardalis8506 the episode where Homer did boxing, the ending had Moe steal the flying parachute and clips of him helping people around the world. Plus a later season episode of the kids lost on an abandoned island, it was mentioned everyone was saved by Moe.
@@bentencho Okay, that's what you meant. I clearly remembered that first thing, but not the second one. I despise modern-ish Moe since, possibly due to only one single episode, he has gone from harmless sexual harass-y creep to actual criminal in that regard.
I wanted an episode that placed Homer in the middle of a battle between Herb Powell's corporate ventures and Mona Simpson's protest against Herb's company
It's funny, when you lay all this out, it makes Herb sound like fascinating, well-written, multi-faceted, tragic villain. One who has good qualities that charm people to his point of view, and a sad backstory, but a fundamental greed, ego, narcissism and selfishness that ultimately ruins everything. Like Lex Luthor believing he could save the world if only Superman didn't "cause" all of his problems, and being unable to see his own faults. The only aspect that makes Herb not as interesting is the narrative's complete disinterest in portraying him that way. That instead of having any of his own tragic flaws, the writers agreed with his simplistic blaming of Homer. I wonder, if the narrative took Homer's side and made Herb more of an antagonist, if he could've been more of a Sideshow Bob kind of character, and be beloved in the fanbase.
To be fair, I feel like they definitely could have done more with him but they might have struggled to make it funny for this guy to transition into something like that. Sideshow Bob has the benefit of being a funny idea from the outset: this ridiculous comedy character who's also an intellectual and a violent psychopath. The closest you could really get with that and still have a lighter tone would be to run with the idea that he's a con man. Have him keep reaching out to Homer to demonstrate some new gadget or business idea, only for the other members of the family to cotton on to the fact that he's exploiting Homer's ignorance of business and investment for personal gain. I guess that's still pretty fucked up. I think it's difficult to make it work because he's just a guy. He's a bit too realistic in set up for him to become a recurrent antagonist/stalker without it really pushing into legitimately uncomfortable territory.
The main reason he sucks: banking your entire company's success on the ideas of a single man who has no experience in the business world and neither with cars. As stupid as Homer might be, Herb should have known better. That was a moronic idea from the beginning, and blaming Homer for it, even though Herb is literally the one person in charge who could have axed the idea at any point, was even stupider. Good will doesn't make for good business, experience does. Homer only has the former, Herb has the latter. Herb was an idiot for relying on Homer too much.
I feel bad for him in the first episode. But later comics make him less likeable. Tries to get ruch again via Homer and his family, but plans to cut them in. After that fails, everything he does later is an attempt to spite Homer for managing to have a perfect life in spite of his flaws.
I mean for the first point he's the ceo, they are responsible for getting the martials and people to create the product and market it. They are not necessarily ideas people it's kind of like being a movie producer.
uh herb, whenever i would hang out with therealjims he would always ask me about you and i 'd say you suck and therealjims would say "maybe herb doesn't suck that much" therealjims said maybe i don't suck? that much that much wow yeah
The story with herb is so bizarrely similar to the story of my own father and uncle. My dad being the head of a middle-class family, and my uncle being a childness half brother who runs his own company, and fluctuates between being rich and falling bankrupt, even with the similar love-hate relationship to my dad.
They could have made a follow-up episode that would have consisted of Maggie constantly "talking" with Danny DeVito's voice through a portable version of the baby translator until the family gets sick of listening it and decides to get rid of the machine, thus explaining its later absence. Herb himself wouldn't have even needed to appear.
one of your best breakdown videos yet. I had never looked at Herb Powell that way, as a flawed individual who reached out to family to fix his fortune, and then when that didn't magically happen, he took that as a sign that he was too 'nice', and went back to blaming Homer and seeing them as purely transactional again. Perhaps if something had happened like Bat nearly died because of his company, he'd be forced to weigh up what family really means.
I'm from Argentina and just now realized that many of the episodes where Herb Powell appears didn't aired in the local channel that televised the simpsons. Yay! new old episodes for me jajajaja
"Lindsay Naegle Sucks" would make for some great material to work with. The whole SSCCATAGAPP fiasco comes to mind, plus firing Kent Brockman for supposedly having cocaine in his coffee (it was Splenda, but Naegle wasn't buying it).
The "I lost my fortune again" could be personal phone answer to get the pesky friends and family to stop calling. After all family, religion and friendship are the three demons you must slay to succeed in business.
He shot himself in the foot and blamed Homer. It's like getting mad that your underage kid crashed your car when you gave him the keys and said, "have fun!"
Powel Motors is basically their take on American Motors Corporation and how it was run into the ground by management who didn't care about the company at all.
Maybe the baby monitor invention was just a scam and didn't actually work. Hence when Herb is revealed to be broke again, it's because his invention was eventually outed as one, was a huge scandal and he was sued for millions and had to pay all these people back.
What was weird about 'Can you spare two dimes' was the eerie music playing when Herb is talking to Maggie as she's sleeping, it was such as weird scene.
Not to mention the weird looming camera angles that play Herb as being kinda creepy, here. It feels like it's meant to be a bit ominious, like Herb is gonna use Maggie for something shady, or at least a rather ill thought out get rich quick scheme.
I remember watching the episode where Herb gets introduced and i genuinely still think the reason Herb basically swaps his life with Homer's (Putting Homer in charge of his company being the main example of this) wasn't so much that he wanted to experience what it's like to have a family, but i think he was absolutely trying to take Homer's place in the family.Oh Brother, Where art thou is such a weird episode with a genuinely baffling ending. I also felt so bad for the executives and car designers this episode, they're painted as being bad, despite them actively being in the right and actually wanting to steer the company away from the obvious failure that Homer's design is going to cause, but Herb completely shuts this down.
In fairness the executives and designers were also snobs who were making unsuccessful ideas that were slowly ruining the company anyway. They don't make any cars that appeal to working class, and when Homer is sent to work with them they just started making their usual car without him, and getting grouchy and shooing him away when he asks about the specifics (the fact he doesn't even know what those features are and couldn't be bothered to explain their productivity should likely be warning sign they are once again making a car for THEM rather than the working man) When Homer steps in a second time and this time puts his foot down, the lead engineer phones Herb before Homer has even STARTED screwing up in what is implied to be a very insulting complaint that leads Herb to just think he is being a pompous ass. They were ultimately right in the end, but really, like Herb, they failed to add much productive to the table themselves and their bad attitude just made things worse. i could argue their first design that they made for Homer (under protest) might have been a good car, an actual compromise of his better ideas put into a marketable design, though sadly Homer had gone mad with power by then. Really it kinda shows the importance of creators and business/market calling things halfway and how either side being difficult just leads to a mess and even ruin. It really felt like NO ONE was really right in the end and was just too difficult to prevent the downhill momentum.
Proffesor Frink (he makes you think) has invented flying cars and other doo dads and galvin wa heys and we never see them again. Granted they weren't main plot lines like Herbs Baby doo dat but still
The Angry Video Game Nerd vs Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde The Cynical Historian vs Woodrow Wilson Dantavius vs Franklin the Turtle Now, we have TheRealJims vs Herb Powell
Nice touch showing Herb's adopted parents from "The Simpsons Family Album". I was actually looking through it this morning. It reveals Homer & Burns are distant cousins too. Early Simpsons weirdnes lol
one day you shoulf probably make a 10 hour long video about the simpsons cannon where you cross reference and document all the inconsistencies and try to work out what is and isn't true
yeahh it was always weird that they kinda just didn't acknowledge that herb did it to himself in part 2 and i think that if Devitos career didn't kick up more in the 90s he probably would have appeared as Herb more.
Herb reminds me of my second Step Father's brother, Uncle Mickey. Guy was a blowhard asshole. He also reminds me of a lot of people in upper management. I worked with a fire suppression company that had been working on installing an automated cartridge fill station for nearly two years. There was all sorts of problems ranging from the company refusing to pay upfront wanting like 12 months to pay them back, so the company would only sell them a few pieces at a time. Then they failed to actually explain what kind of gases they were going to be using, which believe it or not can effect a lot of different variables. They ended up firing the guys who were installing it and brought in a new company, it was a mess. They get the thing installed and it just refuses to work right, it's filling like 12 good cartridges a day. The Yard Manager, like one of the top dogs in our facilities, with a group of people following him and asks our lead how they're enjoying the automation filler and our lead just laughs and tells him it's barely doing anything. Now shouldn't someone in that position know that their multimillion dollar machine isn't working right? Hell, sometimes it isn't even their fault, people hide shit all the time. They started making us all be responsible for various documents that would normally be the manager's job and we would meet once a week to report in on our numbers and stuff. We would also bring up issues we were having with the plant, stuff like that. I was put in charge of production orders being filled and shipped out. Every single week I would report exactly what we got and our manager would try to get me to fudge the numbers and I flat out refused. They stopped asking me to do the paperwork at all, which was nice.
It's funny, I never warmed to Herb either, though I could never really pinpoint why. To be honest, nothing against Danny DeVito, but I never liked Herb's voice. It just felt a bit too gravelly and abrasive for The Simpsons, which combined with Herb's angry and pushy nature, made him unlikable to me. Perhaps it's a voice that works better when you get the context of DeVito's appearance - this short, dumpy, balding guy - but Herb is none of those things. He's a rich and powerful CEO in great physical shape, very much Homer's superior in every way, so he has no underdog appeal or vulnerability. Even when he loses everything, he doesn't become more humble and sympathetic, just more bitter. A good idea for a video might be to compare all the people who ever believed in Homer - Herb, Karl, Hank Scorpio, etc. - and contrast their different approaches and end results. Herb in my opinion wanted Homer to believe in himself, but had no idea that he was in fact pressuring Homer into something he just wasn't ready for. Karl was far more successful in aiding Homer, but in the end was probably doing far too much of the heavy lifting, leaving Homer bereft when he had to leave. Then you have Hank Scorpio where the whole thing is deconstructed and played for laughs. It's an interesting topic.
The babies that relied on the baby translator never learned to talk for themselves. Like Maggie. So Herb Powell lost all his money settling lawsuits. At least, that's how I would explain it if I was writing for the show. The really should have had Herb come back and hold him to task for his terrible treatment of Homer.
While this episode is also a commentary on the American auto industry in the 1970s, it avoids the fact that Herb motors would have been bailed out by the government and everyone would have got huge bonuses!!
The simpsons exist in a multiverse. Minor changes throughout change timelines and events thus Burns has never met Abe whilst also being in the hellfish. The baby translator was likely so improbable that it only exists in very few universes.
At first, I didn't want to start a feud with Herb Powell by doing this video.
But then I realized he is a fictional cartoon character that can't do anything about it.
This is another reason why Herb Powell sucks.
@TheRealJims I get he's a two dimensional character, but you don't need to call him out like that.
if you ever do more of this Why blank sucks series, Agnes Skinner or LouAnn van Houten better be on that list
I’m regards to your point about the company. In the immortal words of Hopper first role of leadership everything is your fault
Danny Devito has entered the chat
If you’re targeting shallow characters for the “X sucks” series, I recommend putting the “get him fellas” guy from last exit to springfield on your hit list. He’s such a little weasel and the “Lets get him fellas” guy definitely sucks. He’s been treated too kindly by Simpsons fans for far too long.
"There isn't enough material for a Simpsons Histories on Herb" - man who made a Simpsons histories on Just Stamp The Ticket Man
dang
You don’t understand man, it’s just stamp the ticket man
He’s the most important character in the simpsons, the show wouldn’t be the same without him
@@TheRealJimsWhat do you mean both of his episodes recently?
@@dontspikemydrink9382From the Hidden Duds video and the recent Extra Seconds
@@TheRealJims ha,must be the hidden duds video, i did watch the extra seconds. Can you please re do the subtitles as they don't match up with what you say. I think you put your script but then make changes. The sentence about nephews and nieces is different from what you said.
I wouldn't be surprised if Herb made that voicemail to make sure nobody asks him for cash and he's got money.
Omg larva
AINT NO WAY LARVA IS HERE
"Thanks for calling, I'm broke and living on the streets again"
Hank Scorpio, who was an evil supervillain, acted more like a loving brother towards Homer.
For Herb to have become destitute so quickly probably meant he was spending well outside his means. So I can believe he was poor in Changing of the Guardian, he probably overspent his fortune and whatever he was making off the baby monitor business couldn't keep up. Though he probably was better off the second go-around if he could afford a phone plan that included an answering machine. He's probably "living in a rundown bachelor pad" poor, rather than "living in the streets" poor.
"Hello, you've reached Herb Powell. I sleep in a racing car, do you?"
Considering the huge mansion and everything for one man... Yes, he definitely was. That he went from super rich to completely homeless so quickly shows he's poor both with money and relationships. Like, he literally had NO ONE that would help him? That's so telling.
Herb was likely living in a single room between two bowling alleys.
Grimey wasn't using it.
@@tully6648excellent point!! The idea that a man could be as influential as him and didn’t have even one couch to surf is telling - hell, he definitely could’ve crashed with Homer if he’d wanted, he clearly wasn’t willing to for some prideful bs. Man was the harbinger of his own downfall
@@MaydupNemA racing car with giant cupholders…
What's amusing is that Two Dimes was practically written just so the team could give Herb a happy ending, and yet the DVD commentary and phone gag afterwards implies they had a similar realization that "Wait a minute? Herb's actually a jerk!". :P
It's almost a funny in-joke, that they made such a charismatic and emotionally manipulative character that he fooled everyone, even THE WRITERS THEMSELVES, into not only giving him a bail out, but believing that they OWED him one.
Being voiced by Danny DeVito is the only redeeming thing about Herb.
Bart was right all along in his assessment of Herb. Just not in the way he meant it.
*"Bastard-Bastard. Bastard-Bastard. Bastard-Bastard."*
How about "Jacqueline Bouvier Sucks" next?
In "Moaning Lisa", her advice to Marge, just woof!
In "Bart vs. Thanksgiving ", she comes into the Simpson household from the back side, and just so happens to walk by the kitchen window to spy on Marge's kitchen activities to look for something to nitpick, and then her very first words to Marge in the episode are "I have laryngitis, and it hurts to talk, so I'll just say one thing: You never do anything right."
In "Lady Bouvier's Lover", she dumps Grampa for Mr. Burns at the drop of a hat, and scoffs at Marge's objection to marrying Mr. Burns, "That man is scum!", to which Jacqueline replies, "Then, call me Mrs. Scum..." Finally, she outright refuses Grampa's ask to marry him instead of Mr. Burns, albeit also dumping Mr. Burns at the altar, which is as close to her not sucking as we will ever get with her.
Oh, and how she treats Homer in both flashback episodes "The Way We Was" and "I Married Marge", ugh.
Clearly, Patty and Selma take after her...
I'm pretty sure that "Then, call me Mrs. Scum..." was said by Selma when Bart objected against he marriage with sideshow Bob in 03x21 The Black Widower. I've just seen the episode.
@@Toraryuko Oh, you're right. Though, I'm pretty sure Marge and Jackie had a similar conversation. What is it with Bouvier women being terrible with picking husbands? Sorry, Marge...
abe is pretty horrible too, and really mona is not much better. pretty interesting that all the simpson grandparents are pretty bad people.
That "It doesn't matter how you feel on the inside, it's what shows on the outside that counts, so bury those feelings all the way down" thing her mother told her in Moaning Lisa really explains a lot about Marge's character and why she puts up with everything that she does.
Homer tried his best with his brother both times but Herb obviously doesnt appreciate him.
This video is like Succession to me lmao. But seriously, being able to actually see an in depth look at how and why Herb Powell is a terrible person despite how the narrative frames him actually makes me more empathetic towards him while also completely agreeing with your points. The idea of Herb being so scarred by his business failings as the Simpsons came into his life that he now views all family relationships as a means to a financial end is so tragic, it makes me feel bad for him while also still seeing him as completely in the wrong. I love how this video was able to add some depth to a controversial guest star character while still 100% agreeing he sucks.
As Lisa said, his biggest flaw is that he was a Simpson. every simpson, whether its the kids, Homer, even Marge, they are really stubborn
I feel bad for Homer. He did the damndest to make his half-brother proud, but all of that led to him being disowned. And even after that Homer still held next to no grudges toward him. Poor guy.
If Herb were to have another episode centered around him, what would you want it to be like?
Act 1: The Simpson house gets broken because of a natural disaster, meanwhile Homer gets a lot of money in a crazy way. The family is planning to use that for something important like fixing the house when Herb knocks at the door.
Act 2: Herb is acting very friendly to Homer and the family and then he ‘casually’ mentions that he’s having some financial difficulties and he asks for his brother new fortune. This time all the family is hesitant because they really need to fix the house. That’s when Herb snaps at them yelling about how Homer ruined his company and says something very rude about Marge and the kids. He’s about to leave the house, but Homer stops him to punch him in the face and then kicks him out.
Act 3: Homer is still angry about Herb but Marge convinces him to forgive him. Homer goes to Herb to make amends, when the step-brother hands him a lawsuit for aggression and tells him that if he gives the money he will drop it and tell them that they will be a family again. Homer is about to accept the deal, when Marge and the kids arrive and rebuke Herb for how terrible he’s always been to his brother and how callous he’s been to appear only when he needs money. They conclude by saying: “Go ahead! Sue us! We have an entire pile of lawsuits!”
In the end the family uses the money to fix the house and turns out that Herb’s lawsuit was just a gamble to get their money. Herb’s try to be forgiven for his behavior but Homer kicks him out of his life
herb get ipad
He hasn't met his father yet. An episode where Herb and Abe finally meet could be interesting.
How about Herb's crazy wedding, where something happens do-do-do do-doooo
Treehouse of Horror where Herb goes crazy due to yet another bankrupcy and tries to kill Homer, thinking everything will be fine once Homer's out of the picture.
Soon after Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?, Mr Burns offers to buy the patent for the baby translator in exchange for a huge sum of money.
Once Herb gives him the patent and asks for the money, Burns acts oblivious and says stuff like "what money? which causes Herb to get furious and attack Burns.
He gets restrained by Burns' bodyguards and ends up being sued for assault, Herb tries to argue that Burns stole his entire livelihood away but Burns just keeps acting oblivious to it.
Herb loses all his money, after the trial Smithers tells him "Sorry, Burns has recently started taking memory loss pills as a joke. No I don't get it either."
Suddenly he gets a phone call from Homer, he tells him that he's poor again and than Homer ends the call.
"Oh, too good to help out your stinkin' brother, huh? HOMER!!!!"
Idk what happens next
6:36 "homer's brother in law"?
Herb losing his fortune was not Homer's fault. It was he who left Homer in charge of that project.
I absolutely love these two episodes, especially the second one, but that’s because I’m not overly fussed about whether Herb is “good” or “bad” person. I’be never been too invested in his emotional arc, if indeed he has one.
When it comes down to it, they’re just really really funny episodes, and Danny DeVito’s performance absolutely crackles with energy and charisma. That’s what these episodes are really about for me.
Man,i really miss this character. I really liked him (especially since he was a missing part of Homer's youth) It sucks how criminally underused he became throughout the show's course :(
There was a ton of potential there for the two brothers to develop a relationship would have been so interesting to watch it happen bit by bit.
Herb sounds like a broken man with a history of trauma. Perhaps his upbringing was very difficult, thus he was constantly on survival mode. Without any warm and connections, he only saw money and wealth as a indicator of one's worth in the world, hence he strived to make to the top of the corporate world. He was at a mid-life crisis when the Simpsons arrived, and he immediately bonded with Marge, Maggie, Liza and Bart as they were the family and childhood he never had. That's one of the reason he shirks his responsibility at his company, he even told Bart how he just wanted to watch cartoons all day, etc.
His anger towards Homer was misdirected as it appears he never showed his vulnerabilities, but he opened up to the Simpsons. The results, he let his emotions override his logical mind and it brought him ruins.
I wish they brought him back on the show or at least referenced him. Not him being poor, but maybe how he's still rich and reconnected with his humanity. That he's out saving people, like Moe.
What do you mean by Moe saving people?
@camelopardalis8506 the episode where Homer did boxing, the ending had Moe steal the flying parachute and clips of him helping people around the world. Plus a later season episode of the kids lost on an abandoned island, it was mentioned everyone was saved by Moe.
@@bentencho Okay, that's what you meant. I clearly remembered that first thing, but not the second one.
I despise modern-ish Moe since, possibly due to only one single episode, he has gone from harmless sexual harass-y creep to actual criminal in that regard.
Bro just called Herb Powell a vacuum cleaner
I wanted an episode that placed Homer in the middle of a battle between Herb Powell's corporate ventures and Mona Simpson's protest against Herb's company
1:44 bender herb. I can’t unsee it
When I saw the title of the video and the thumbnail I assumed it was a Dark Simpsons video.
This was the first video of yours i ever watched, and it got me instantly hooked
I was always confused how Homer's car bankrupted the company for $82,000. Like, how did Herb only have that much in the company?
Knowing Herb he probably spent a bunch of money having several of them manufactured before ever seeing them
I believe there was a whole bunch of such cars produced already so they could be bought right away by the interested buyers.
$82,000 was the retail price of the car. So not only was it awful, its price tag made it out of reach for the common man it was aimed at.
The cost of developing a car likely outweighs the retail price.
It's funny, when you lay all this out, it makes Herb sound like fascinating, well-written, multi-faceted, tragic villain. One who has good qualities that charm people to his point of view, and a sad backstory, but a fundamental greed, ego, narcissism and selfishness that ultimately ruins everything. Like Lex Luthor believing he could save the world if only Superman didn't "cause" all of his problems, and being unable to see his own faults.
The only aspect that makes Herb not as interesting is the narrative's complete disinterest in portraying him that way. That instead of having any of his own tragic flaws, the writers agreed with his simplistic blaming of Homer. I wonder, if the narrative took Homer's side and made Herb more of an antagonist, if he could've been more of a Sideshow Bob kind of character, and be beloved in the fanbase.
To be fair, I feel like they definitely could have done more with him but they might have struggled to make it funny for this guy to transition into something like that.
Sideshow Bob has the benefit of being a funny idea from the outset: this ridiculous comedy character who's also an intellectual and a violent psychopath.
The closest you could really get with that and still have a lighter tone would be to run with the idea that he's a con man. Have him keep reaching out to Homer to demonstrate some new gadget or business idea, only for the other members of the family to cotton on to the fact that he's exploiting Homer's ignorance of business and investment for personal gain.
I guess that's still pretty fucked up.
I think it's difficult to make it work because he's just a guy. He's a bit too realistic in set up for him to become a recurrent antagonist/stalker without it really pushing into legitimately uncomfortable territory.
The main reason he sucks: banking your entire company's success on the ideas of a single man who has no experience in the business world and neither with cars.
As stupid as Homer might be, Herb should have known better. That was a moronic idea from the beginning, and blaming Homer for it, even though Herb is literally the one person in charge who could have axed the idea at any point, was even stupider. Good will doesn't make for good business, experience does. Homer only has the former, Herb has the latter. Herb was an idiot for relying on Homer too much.
I feel bad for him in the first episode.
But later comics make him less likeable.
Tries to get ruch again via Homer and his family, but plans to cut them in.
After that fails, everything he does later is an attempt to spite Homer for managing to have a perfect life in spite of his flaws.
I mean for the first point he's the ceo, they are responsible for getting the martials and people to create the product and market it. They are not necessarily ideas people it's kind of like being a movie producer.
uh herb, whenever i would hang out with therealjims he would always ask me about you and i 'd say you suck
and therealjims would say "maybe herb doesn't suck that much"
therealjims said maybe i don't suck?
that much
that much
wow
yeah
He’s definitely written that way because they don’t want you too used to seeing him
Will there ever be a Bart's Friend's Mom's Meatloaf Sucks video?
We need a history of Lindsey Naegle
Starting beef with a cartoon is the most powerful thing you can do it
The story with herb is so bizarrely similar to the story of my own father and uncle. My dad being the head of a middle-class family, and my uncle being a childness half brother who runs his own company, and fluctuates between being rich and falling bankrupt, even with the similar love-hate relationship to my dad.
They could have made a follow-up episode that would have consisted of Maggie constantly "talking" with Danny DeVito's voice through a portable version of the baby translator until the family gets sick of listening it and decides to get rid of the machine, thus explaining its later absence. Herb himself wouldn't have even needed to appear.
Was there an obvious reason why Powell Motors building looks like The Gugenheim Museum?
So, in fewer words, he's a textbook CEO
I can't believe I never made the connection that Danny Devito voiced Herb...
"It's herb, I'm broke again"
Can you do an Extra Seconds Review on Homer’s Barbershop Quartet?
one of your best breakdown videos yet. I had never looked at Herb Powell that way, as a flawed individual who reached out to family to fix his fortune, and then when that didn't magically happen, he took that as a sign that he was too 'nice', and went back to blaming Homer and seeing them as purely transactional again. Perhaps if something had happened like Bat nearly died because of his company, he'd be forced to weigh up what family really means.
11:46 Oh so Homer and Marge saying that Homer was sterile due to the nuclear power plant in the Tomacco episode was a reference to this?!?
It wasnt till years later that i found out he was voiced by Harry Warmwood
I'm from Argentina and just now realized that many of the episodes where Herb Powell appears didn't aired in the local channel that televised the simpsons. Yay! new old episodes for me jajajaja
As someone who has seen the episodes, his voice in the LatAm dub is very annoying
@@KahilaTheArtSlime i only watched the first one, and its fine for a cartoon character
He is one of those characters you don't remenber he exists until the fandom brings him up.
Herb seems like a pretty typical CEO. He doesn't really do anything, and when something goes wrong he blames everyone else.
Now that you've done a video on Herb, I hope you get to one on Disco Stew.
6:03
"its not just hard, its impossible" -katara
i love how homers car is one of the best cars in hit&run.
Lord Thistlewick flanders.
We really need a video on this guy, he's easily in the top 5
He was mentioned in an episode and you see his picture hanging. I don’t remember which one and I can’t be bothered to look it up.
"Lindsay Naegle Sucks" would make for some great material to work with.
The whole SSCCATAGAPP fiasco comes to mind, plus firing Kent Brockman for supposedly having cocaine in his coffee (it was Splenda, but Naegle wasn't buying it).
Lindsay is always presented as being terrible though, while Herb is presented as being wronged by Homer.
The "I lost my fortune again" could be personal phone answer to get the pesky friends and family to stop calling. After all family, religion and friendship are the three demons you must slay to succeed in business.
Hey don't come at my distance cousin like that.
He shot himself in the foot and blamed Homer.
It's like getting mad that your underage kid crashed your car when you gave him the keys and said, "have fun!"
Powel Motors is basically their take on American Motors Corporation and how it was run into the ground by management who didn't care about the company at all.
Maybe the baby monitor invention was just a scam and didn't actually work. Hence when Herb is revealed to be broke again, it's because his invention was eventually outed as one, was a huge scandal and he was sued for millions and had to pay all these people back.
im surprised they didnt do another episode
Well spoke too soon
What was weird about 'Can you spare two dimes' was the eerie music playing when Herb is talking to Maggie as she's sleeping, it was such as weird scene.
Not to mention the weird looming camera angles that play Herb as being kinda creepy, here. It feels like it's meant to be a bit ominious, like Herb is gonna use Maggie for something shady, or at least a rather ill thought out get rich quick scheme.
Though I only had a vague idea of Herb, his appearance in Can You Spare Two Dimes struck me as a man blaming homer for his own personal failings.
the sleep paralysis demon that is that thumbnail ong
"Homer I bought you the damn chair!"
I remember watching the episode where Herb gets introduced and i genuinely still think the reason Herb basically swaps his life with Homer's (Putting Homer in charge of his company being the main example of this) wasn't so much that he wanted to experience what it's like to have a family, but i think he was absolutely trying to take Homer's place in the family.Oh Brother, Where art thou is such a weird episode with a genuinely baffling ending.
I also felt so bad for the executives and car designers this episode, they're painted as being bad, despite them actively being in the right and actually wanting to steer the company away from the obvious failure that Homer's design is going to cause, but Herb completely shuts this down.
In fairness the executives and designers were also snobs who were making unsuccessful ideas that were slowly ruining the company anyway. They don't make any cars that appeal to working class, and when Homer is sent to work with them they just started making their usual car without him, and getting grouchy and shooing him away when he asks about the specifics (the fact he doesn't even know what those features are and couldn't be bothered to explain their productivity should likely be warning sign they are once again making a car for THEM rather than the working man) When Homer steps in a second time and this time puts his foot down, the lead engineer phones Herb before Homer has even STARTED screwing up in what is implied to be a very insulting complaint that leads Herb to just think he is being a pompous ass.
They were ultimately right in the end, but really, like Herb, they failed to add much productive to the table themselves and their bad attitude just made things worse. i could argue their first design that they made for Homer (under protest) might have been a good car, an actual compromise of his better ideas put into a marketable design, though sadly Homer had gone mad with power by then. Really it kinda shows the importance of creators and business/market calling things halfway and how either side being difficult just leads to a mess and even ruin. It really felt like NO ONE was really right in the end and was just too difficult to prevent the downhill momentum.
Herb Powell represents the 90s archetype of a CEO. He "gives orders" and "has power" but otherwise others need to pitch in.
Proffesor Frink (he makes you think) has invented flying cars and other doo dads and galvin wa heys and we never see them again. Granted they weren't main plot lines like Herbs Baby doo dat but still
Reminder that in the Sideshow Mel video TheRealJims promised a Mr. Teeny Simpsons History video in 2023
But when will we get a Simpsons histories video on Graggle Simpson?
The only good thing about herb is that he’s voiced by Danny devito
The Angry Video Game Nerd vs Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Cynical Historian vs Woodrow Wilson
Dantavius vs Franklin the Turtle
Now, we have TheRealJims vs Herb Powell
Guess the writers agreed since they threw him into the void never to be mentioned ever again after Season 3...and no a voice cameo doesn't count
Nice touch showing Herb's adopted parents from "The Simpsons Family Album". I was actually looking through it this morning. It reveals Homer & Burns are distant cousins too. Early Simpsons weirdnes lol
I like to think Herb moved to Philly after the second episode he appeared in
7:45 Hey, you totally didn't came up with a better title !
one day you shoulf probably make a 10 hour long video about the simpsons cannon where you cross reference and document all the inconsistencies and try to work out what is and isn't true
At least he bought Homer the chair in the end.
Danny needs to do a final episode where he made enough to live OK lol
Drunky Herb was in the original script.
yeahh it was always weird that they kinda just didn't acknowledge that herb did it to himself in part 2
and i think that if Devitos career didn't kick up more in the 90s he probably would have appeared as Herb more.
Have you done a video about Oh Brother can you spare two dimes? I checked and wasn't able to find one.
What's more unrealistic - that herb creates a baby translator by himself or founds a new US motor company from scratch in the 1970s?
>He doesn't micromanage
Wow that's rare-
>He doesn't even know anything about his own product
Ah there it is
Herb reminds me of my second Step Father's brother, Uncle Mickey. Guy was a blowhard asshole. He also reminds me of a lot of people in upper management.
I worked with a fire suppression company that had been working on installing an automated cartridge fill station for nearly two years. There was all sorts of problems ranging from the company refusing to pay upfront wanting like 12 months to pay them back, so the company would only sell them a few pieces at a time. Then they failed to actually explain what kind of gases they were going to be using, which believe it or not can effect a lot of different variables. They ended up firing the guys who were installing it and brought in a new company, it was a mess.
They get the thing installed and it just refuses to work right, it's filling like 12 good cartridges a day. The Yard Manager, like one of the top dogs in our facilities, with a group of people following him and asks our lead how they're enjoying the automation filler and our lead just laughs and tells him it's barely doing anything. Now shouldn't someone in that position know that their multimillion dollar machine isn't working right?
Hell, sometimes it isn't even their fault, people hide shit all the time. They started making us all be responsible for various documents that would normally be the manager's job and we would meet once a week to report in on our numbers and stuff. We would also bring up issues we were having with the plant, stuff like that. I was put in charge of production orders being filled and shipped out. Every single week I would report exactly what we got and our manager would try to get me to fudge the numbers and I flat out refused. They stopped asking me to do the paperwork at all, which was nice.
At the end of the day, I still would've bought and driven a Homer with pride
I like the cool uncle part of his character
Uh oh, you said sucks in the title, it's going to get age restricted.
Jim's what do you think of the new futurerama episode
It is weird that a man had a failing car business, and couldn't figure out any ideas but could invent a baby translator.
I see Herb is becoming the internet's new Grandpa Joe
It's funny, I never warmed to Herb either, though I could never really pinpoint why. To be honest, nothing against Danny DeVito, but I never liked Herb's voice. It just felt a bit too gravelly and abrasive for The Simpsons, which combined with Herb's angry and pushy nature, made him unlikable to me.
Perhaps it's a voice that works better when you get the context of DeVito's appearance - this short, dumpy, balding guy - but Herb is none of those things. He's a rich and powerful CEO in great physical shape, very much Homer's superior in every way, so he has no underdog appeal or vulnerability. Even when he loses everything, he doesn't become more humble and sympathetic, just more bitter.
A good idea for a video might be to compare all the people who ever believed in Homer - Herb, Karl, Hank Scorpio, etc. - and contrast their different approaches and end results. Herb in my opinion wanted Homer to believe in himself, but had no idea that he was in fact pressuring Homer into something he just wasn't ready for. Karl was far more successful in aiding Homer, but in the end was probably doing far too much of the heavy lifting, leaving Homer bereft when he had to leave. Then you have Hank Scorpio where the whole thing is deconstructed and played for laughs. It's an interesting topic.
The babies that relied on the baby translator never learned to talk for themselves. Like Maggie. So Herb Powell lost all his money settling lawsuits. At least, that's how I would explain it if I was writing for the show. The really should have had Herb come back and hold him to task for his terrible treatment of Homer.
In season 4 Leonard Nemoy beamed out like on Star Trek; the baby translator is absolutely believable in the Simpsons world.
Interesting way to start off a series. I was just thinking earlier how I wish they'd used him more.
i think the writers realized herb was a screw up with that season 24 episode.
Back then $82,000 for a new car was so insane that it bankrupted a car manufacturer.
$183,692.64 today after inflation
At least homer isn’t an only child
I am surprised they never brought him back for another episode...yet
While this episode is also a commentary on the American auto industry in the 1970s, it avoids the fact that Herb motors would have been bailed out by the government and everyone would have got huge bonuses!!
The simpsons exist in a multiverse. Minor changes throughout change timelines and events thus Burns has never met Abe whilst also being in the hellfish. The baby translator was likely so improbable that it only exists in very few universes.
"The there isnt enough material for a simpsons histories" audio switch really changed the game we need a simpsons histories on that one
Thank you for your reviews/analysis. They are quite good and I don't see other people critiquing/praising the Simpsons this in depth.