Perfect Timing: Smothers Brothers Pop Up on "The Simpsons," and Are Dreamy

When I interviewed Matt Groening for my book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,' about how strongly Tom and Dick Smothers had influenced his sense of comedy, Groening told me, almost in passing, that he was about to record the siblings for an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. So I knew their animated appearance was coming -- and Sunday, I featured it sight unseen as a BIANCULLI'S BEST BET.

What I didn't know, until it was sight seen, though, was how cleverly they were used, and, even in cartoon form, how funny they were...

The 21st-season episode was titled "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?," and dealt with Bart's sudden yearning for a younger brother. In a lengthy first-act dream sequence, Bart walks through a dreamscape populated by famous brothers: the athletic Manning brothers, the plane-flying Wright brothers, the cough-drop-sucking Smith Bros., even the videogame-playing Mario and Luigi.

Capping the dream, though, was when Bart came upon a bandshell in which Tom and Dick Smothers were singing "Cabbage," a song from their early nightclub act, as a Tiffany-style logo for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was displayed behind them.

In this dream world, the Smothers Brothers profess their love for one another, then Dick says that if Tom hadn't fought CBS so hard in the Sixties, the network never would have fired them. "We quit," Tom insists. When Dick doesn't buy that, Tom shifts to, "YOU were fired," and they argue some more, until Tom pulls out his yo-yo. Then, at the end of the show, their voices reappear in the closing credits, riffing with Dan Castelleneta as Homer.

For a limited time, this is available to see on Hulu.

To see just the dream sequence featuring the Smothers Brothers, click HERE.

Or, to watch the entire show and see the scene in context, and hear the goofy closing-credits dialogue, click HERE.

Meanwhile, the Smothers Brothers continue their current pop-culture resurgence. This month, The Simpsons. Next month, an induction into the Emmy Hall of Fame.

The month after that, who knows?