Props to Harry Turtledove on this. Must take a tremendous amount of self-confidence for an author to reveal spoilers ahead of time.

Ancient alien reveal, check? C'mon, it would be cool.

"and was afraid I simply might not be able to write badly enough to qualify for my degree."

Good, common sense, point there. The note about the whole ship smelling threw me off.

At first I thought it was odd they didn't just keep the poop box in the aft section of the ship, but I suspect the bow was more ideal usually because there's less going on up there, so maybe a bit more privacy.

I had to do a lookup on [imdb.com] to confirm that there wasn't already a version of this movie with Sylvester Stallone. Yep.

Oh Cousin Eddie, I couldn't get past two minutes of your Vacation attempt.

I suspected that sentence was misleading by its construction. Thanks for clarifying.

Little did Lisa Simpson know that her innocent jug playing was a siren song to many a female kakapo, luring them to a mortal Homer-kakapo mating dance.

Just yesterday I saw the Ancient Aliens (credibility plummeting now?) that covered this and the main eyewitness they interviewed had a similar story to your understanding of the issue. I don't know what to believe, but if our military couldn't take out a weather balloon with anti-aircraft fire, that would be bad.

No ropes, no mats. Guess it's for experts, the gifted, and fools only.

I wonder if this is his home.

"11-12 year old male's [never ending] obsession"

...some melancholy Love & Rockets for Tim Doyle's melancholy take on iconic Simpsons establishments. Particularly fitting when looking at the Moe's Tavern screenprint.

I would imagine a Batman vs. Slim Jim battle would go like this: "Alfred, I trust you can handle this?"

So this musical is from 1958...was "I'm So Bored" the inspiration for "I'm So Tired" in Blazing Saddles?

"I've gotta give you a ticket!" Nice.

One more try with the youtube link attempt.

One of the greatest TV shows and one of the best episodes: The Cane

Which one is that, exactly?