When Jay Sherman showed up as a guest judge for the Springfield Film Festival, it created the perfect platform for one of the most movie parody-packed episodes of The Simpsons ever. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “A Star Is Burns” (S6E18), Adam and Nate explore an equally epic movie—Ben-Hur (1959)—as well as The Critic, an even more movie-saturated series developed by several Simpsons alumni.

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Also in this episode:

• Is this movie actually as Christian as it seems, or is there very little meat in this gym mat?
• Which actor is more Troy McClure-ish, Charlton Heston or Stephen Boyd?
• Does the chariot race that launched a thousand homages hold up today?
• Are the lepers in Ben-Hur as scary as Maude Flanders thinks?
• Plus, check out our show notes for a complete list of Simpsons references, double feature suggestions, and further reading

Next time, Nate and Adam look back on our favourite movies of the year and recap the surprises, snubs, and the Simpsons-related host of the 97th Academy Awards.

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