In this past weeks episode of The Simpsons, Principal Skinner announces that Mrs. Krabappel was called out of town and budget cuts dictate that, until she returns, the school’s two fourth grade classes will merge. Bart reluctantly shares a desk with Nikki and develops a flirtatious rapport. Bart talks to Grampa about his new crush, and at Grampa’s suggestion, gives Nikki a kiss. But when Nikki starts sending Bart mixed signals, he swears off women forever. Meanwhile, Lisa’s classmates ostracize her for being an overachiever, and First Lady Michelle Obama, a self-professed nerd, comes to Lisa’s defense.
Bart was once again struck by love and the results were quite entertaining. Mrs. Krabappel's absence forced Principal Skinner to combine the two fourth grade classes at Springfield Elementary into one class. The setting gave us a number of great lines from some of our class favorites, including Milhouse, Martin, the twins and Nelson. Nelson had the best minor storyline in the episode after getting paired with a blind student in the other class. Throughout the episode, we returned to the duo and saw how Nelson was taking the kid under his bully wing. And this is precisely why I so enjoy these school-based episodes. There's plenty to work with to fill the episode with extra laughs.
Doubling up at the desk introduced Bart to Nikki. Essentially a female version of Bart, Nikki was the closest thing Bart has gotten to finding true love since Greta Wolfcastle. Voiced by guest Sarah Silverman, Nikki turned out to be a fun and memorable character. And since she's a regular student, the possibility remains that we may see her again someday. After Bart stole a kiss, urged on by a banana-eating Grampa Simpson, Nikki's parents threatened a lawsuit and were granted an "affection-free environment" on school premises. Unfortunately, this concept was not played up as much as I had hoped it would be. Out of it we did get a "skit, or sketch" defining what was inappropriate, but watching Groundskeeper Willie and Skinner kissing for longer than they should be was probably funnier on paper.
Regardless of the affection ban, Bart continued a relationship with Nikki, who showed Bart that women are entirely impossible to figure out. My favorite line of the episode came when Nikki told Bart he should know what she wants: "I want you to act the same way two days in a row!" I also loved the montage of famous "kisses" that played as Nikki was giving Bart CPR. The clips started as you might expect, with some of the most famous, passionate kisses in cinema, but then added the unexpected. The standouts for me were the alien smooching Ellen Ripley and Sammy Davis Jr. laying one on Archie Bunker.
Meanwhile, Lisa was going through her 100th crisis of "being smart ain't all it's cracked up to be." It started with her suddenly becoming popular after receiving a failing grade on a test. But once that situation was cleared up (Ralph: "I cheated wrong. I used the Lisa name, but the Ralph answers."), Lisa went right back to being an outcast. In a very roundabout way, First Lady Michele Obama came to the elementary school to give Lisa some support and herald overachievers. Angela Bassett was good as the voice of Obama, but the whole thing felt odd and very forced. Still it did give the opportunity for Superintendent Chalmers to state, "He's our Joe Biden," about Principal Skinner.
Yea liked the movie montages as well. I though the one with the alien kiss was funny.
ReplyDeleteI agree I also enjoyed the movie montages. I liked the one from the movie Ghost and that they threw Lady and the Tramp in there. I felt like I learned a lot through your analysis of this episode. I have never really watched this show before, so I had never learned about previous love interests Bart had encountered. I thought it was great that you referenced a previous one. I also agree that Nelson had a great minor role. I feel like many young children do not know how to act around other kids with disabilities. Nelson quickly acquired a protective instinct towards this blind friend and told everyone not to mess with him. I also thought it was funny that Nelson attempted to corrupt the boy and showed the boy all his mischievous ways. I also thought it was funny at the end of the episode when Nelson punched the blind friend and the kid ended up tricking Nelson into believing he restored his vision. I thought it gave Nelson a small taste of his own medicine!
ReplyDeleteI liked that you mentioned the plot line with the blind student. I thought that was interesting that they included it. It was pretty funny, but I wouldn't have expected them to include such truthful commentary on disability. Disability tends to be something we ignore in the media. And if we do include it, its either a pitty party, or a horror story. But in this depiction the blind student kept responding to each of thing Nelson said to him. Nelson tried to act like the student couldn't do anything because he was blind. But the blind student kept responding with all the things he was capable of doing, just like everyone else. I was kinda proud of the simpsons in this.
ReplyDeleteI thought this show was good becuase it shows how not all people have the tendancy to make fun of people that are not the same as them. Kids should realize how lucky they are that they do not have diabilities as unfortunate others do
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