Bart's Friend Falls in Love

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The Simpsons episode
"Bart's Friend Falls in Love"
Milhouse and Samantha kiss
Episode no. 58
Prod. code 8F22
Orig. airdate May 7, 1992
Show runner(s) Al Jean & Mike Reiss
Written by Jay Kogen &
Wallace Wolodarsky
Directed by Jim Reardon
Chalkboard "I will not snap bras"
Couch gag The couch tips over backwards, sending them through the wall
Guest star(s) Kimmy Robertson as Samantha Stanky
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
DVD
commentary		 Matt Groening
James L. Brooks
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Julie Kavner
Nancy Cartwright
Yeardley Smith
Jay Kogen
Wallace Wolodarsky
Jim Reardon
Season 3
September 19, 1991 – August 27, 1992
  1. "Stark Raving Dad"
  2. "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington"
  3. "When Flanders Failed"
  4. "Bart the Murderer"
  5. "Homer Defined"
  6. "Like Father, Like Clown"
  7. "Treehouse of Horror II"
  8. "Lisa's Pony"
  9. "Saturdays of Thunder"
  10. "Flaming Moe's"
  11. "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk"
  12. "I Married Marge"
  13. "Radio Bart"
  14. "Lisa the Greek"
  15. "Homer Alone"
  16. "Bart the Lover"
  17. "Homer at the Bat"
  18. "Separate Vocations"
  19. "Dog of Death"
  20. "Colonel Homer"
  21. "Black Widower"
  22. "The Otto Show"
  23. "Bart's Friend Falls in Love"
  24. "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

"Bart's Friend Falls in Love" is the 23rd episode of The Simpsons' third season.

Contents

[edit] Plot

On the way to school on the bus, Bart Simpson's best friend, Milhouse, shows him his Magic 8 ball. Bart asks the ball whether he and Milhouse will still be friends by the end of the day, and the ball predicts NO. Both are puzzled by how this could happen.

A new girl from Phoenix, Arizona, named Samantha Stanky starts at Springfield Elementary School and Milhouse falls in love with her. She also starts falling for him. To Bart's dismay and anger, Milhouse and Samantha start a relationship and, rather than playing with Bart after school in his treehouse, Milhouse brings Samantha with him and spends the entire time kissing her. They ignore Bart, leaving nothing for him to do but leave. In order to restore the previous status quo, Bart calls Samantha's father and lets him know what's happening, and Mr. Stanky rushes to Bart's treehouse and takes her away before she can even explain. She is sent to St. Sebastian's school for Wicked Girls, an all-girls convent school. Bart lets Milhouse know that he told on him and Samantha and they fight over Bart's actions. Milhouse visits Samantha at the convent school and Bart apologizes to her, but she say it is OK - she loves Saint Sebastian's. However, she still has feelings for Milhouse and gives him a goodbye kiss, despite her knowingly violating school rules.

Meanwhile, Lisa is watching a documentary on the health problems of obesity. She is fearful that Homer's obesity will lead to an early death. On Lisa's suggestion, Marge orders a subliminal weight-loss tape for Homer. Humorously enough, the company is out of the tapes and sends Homer a "Vocabulary Builder" tape. Homer ends up eating more than ever, but his vocabulary is through the roof. However when he realises that the tape does not work he gets rid of it and his vocabulary quickly returns to worse than normal.

[edit] Debut Appearances

Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:

[edit] Cultural references

  • The episode's opening sequence parodies that of Raiders of the Lost Ark: Bart is Indiana Jones, snatching a penny jar (instead of a Fertility Idol), Homer stands in for the boulder and the Hovitos tribe, Maggie fires suction darts instead of arrows, and Bart narrowly passes through the closing garage door and retrieve his hat. John Williams's "Raiders March" plays throughout.[1]
  • After watching a sex education film, Bart inquires about how to create a half human, half ape hybrid. He is rebuffed by Edna Krabappel, who tells him that would be playing God. Bart then says, "God-schmod. I want my monkey man!"
  • The moment where Bart reaches behind him for a weapon with which to fend off Milhouse is a spoof of the murder in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder.
  • Milhouse has a Spinal Tap poster on his bedroom wall.
  • Bart takes a distracted Milhouse's Carl Yastrzemski baseball card in exchange for one of Omar Vizquel with the head cut out.
  • Lisa imagines Homer buried in a piano crate lowered by a crane due to his obesity. This is in reference to Robert Earl Hughes, the world's widest man, who is sometimes incorrectly referred to have been buried in this manner.
  • When Samantha indicates the French-Canadian nuns at Saint-Sebastians, one leads a group of children singing "Dominique", a Belgian song by the Singing Nun (Jeanine Deckers).
  • The final moments from the episode is spoofed from the movie Casablanca (film). The song La Marseillaise could be heard in the background.
  • The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon in this episode features a top hat similar to Oddjob's hat in Goldfinger. Itchy launches it at Scratchy's wife-to-be, which cuts her head off and then Scratchy's.

[edit] Reception

The Canadian television series The Hour, hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, once ranked the Raiders of the Lost Ark parody from this episode as the greatest in the "Top Five Male Underwear Moments of All Time". The list referred to scenes in film and television portraying men in underwear, and Homer wore underwear in the relevant scene.[2] Empire named the episode's opening the best film parody in the show, calling it the series' "most famous opening sequence". They noted Homer played "both his roles – half-naked native; big fat boulder – with consumate aplomb. Unga-bunga indeed."[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Colin Kennedy. "The Ten Best Movie Gags In The Simpsons", Empire, September 2004, pp. 76
  2. ^ The Hour, CBC Television, aired 26 March 2007.

[edit] External links

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