Bart the Murderer

"Bart the Murderer" is the fourth episode of the The Simpsons' third season. The episode aired on October 10, 1991, marking the first appearance of Fat Tony, Legs and Louie. Fat Tony is voiced by Joe Mantegna, who also played himself playing Fat Tony in Blood on the Blackboard: The Bart Simpson Story. Fat Tony is drawn to look much more like the real Joe Mantegna, and uses a more casual voice than the one he does for Fat Tony.

1 Plot
2 Cultural references
3 Reception
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Plot

After crashing his skateboard down the stairwell of the Legitimate Businessman's Social Club during a bad day (being disallowed from attending a school trip to the chocolate factory and instead spending his entire day licking envelopes), Bart falls in with a particularly bad crowd - the Springfield Mafia. He befriends mobster Fat Tony, Louie, Joey and other gangsters, who take him on as their bartender and errand boy. As Bart adopts more and more gangster-like traits, a worried Marge grows anxious and tells Homer to go and meet the Mafia, but he actually approves of them. Once Principal Skinner catches Bart spraying graffiti at school, Bart tucks some money into his pocket and dismisses him.

Skinner naturally refuses to go quietly and sentences Bart to detention, making him late for a meeting with the Mob and he frustratedly tells Fat Tony that Skinner is responsible for his tardiness. Fat Tony and his friends leave to confront Skinner who, soon after their 'meeting', disappears from the public. After nearly a week, Skinner is presumed to have been murdered. Rumors spread fast and Bart is psychologically tortured by his nightmares after overhearing his friends' theories about Bart's crooked employers and how they could easily be murderers. The police soon suspect that Bart and his new friends are responsible and charge them with first degree murder. During the sensational trial, Fat Tony turns stool pigeon and tells the court that Bart is the kingpin of his organization and Skinner's insane killer.

Judge Snyder is about to convict Bart when Skinner bursts through the doors, disheveled, and explains that neither Bart nor the Mob assaulted him. After talking with the Mob, he became trapped beneath tons of old newspapers in his garage. He explains how he survived for weeks by living off his mother's "delicious preserves" before he was able to escape. As a result, Bart and the Mob are cleared from all charges. Afterwards, Fat Tony explains that he didn't want Bart to get into any trouble on his behalf, but Bart decides to resign after learning that "crime doesn't pay" and that gangsters make lousy friends. In the end, the Simpsons settle down at home and watch a new show called "Blood on the Blackboard: The Bart Simpson Story", starring Neil Patrick Harris as Bart and Joey Mantegna as Fat Tony. Bart seems to like it, but Homer wonders when the producers will send a check to the family for the show. Marge explains that due to the artistic license taken, they will be able to avoid paying them. Homer concludes that Hollywood producers are the real criminals.

[edit] Cultural references

All of the horses in the race are named after a famous animated character's catchphrase:

"Ain't I a Stinker?" (Bugs Bunny)
"Yabba Dabba Doo" (Fred Flintstone)
"Sufferin' Succotash" (Sylvester)
"That's All Folks" (Porky Pig)
"I Yam What I Yam" (Popeye)

Bart's catchphrases, "Eat my shorts" and "Don't have a cow" are also horses.

After Bart suffers a nightmare, he wakes up screaming. The camera shots during Bart's scream match those in a scene from The Godfather, when Jack Woltz wakes up with a horse's head in his bed and screams. The Itchy and Scratchy Episode portrayed in this episode starts with Itchy dressed up as a policeman as a variety of cats including Scratchy line up along a brick wall. Itchy then pulls out a Tommy Gun and kills all the cats. Laughing at the show, Fat Tony remarks that "It's funny because it's true", a reference to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre

The scene at the chocolate factory where the kids are watching an old film narrated by Troy McClure, the Aztec who smokes the cocoa bean, mimics the Cleveland Indians' mascot, Chief Wahoo.

The basis of Bart starting a mafia career by becoming a mob task boy parallels that of Henry Hill from the film Goodfellas.^[1]^[2]

When Bart is running beside the bus, Lisa smiles and waves at him in a way similar to Fernando Rey in The French Connection

The scene at the chocolate factory where the kids are slurping up the chocolate from the vat refers to Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[edit] Reception

Vanity Fair called "Bart the Murderer" the eighth best episode of The Simpsons in 2007. John Orvted said, "This episode makes the cut because of the inspired Mafia satire and because it goes deeper into Bart's ongoing conflict with authority figures."^[3]