Lisa the Iconoclast

"Lisa the Iconoclast" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season, and is probably the most important episode for Jebediah Springfield since "The Telltale Head". The episode's plot bears a striking resemblance to the short story "The Washingtonians" by Bentley Little.

The guest star is Donald Sutherland, whose son and fellow Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland would go on to guest star on The Simpsons in the episodes "G.I. D'oh" and "24 Minutes". Sutherland also played a character named "Homer Simpson" in the 1974 film The Day of the Locust and worked with Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa) on Heaven Help Us, which was Smith's first film. Writer David X. Cohen created the word "cromulent" in the episode, which was intended to sound like a real word but play on the fact that it and "embiggens" are completely fabricated.

1 Plot
2 Cromulent and embiggens
3 Cultural references
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

As Springfield celebrates its bicentennial, Lisa Simpson makes the shocking discovery that the town's beloved founder, the late Jebediah Springfield, was actually a villainous pirate and enemy of George Washington who kept his dark past hidden. He had written his confession on the back side of a portrait of George Washington and hid it in his fife. Lisa's revelations do not go over well with the town, resulting in an "F" on a report about Springfield and getting banned from the Historical Society for three months. Lisa tries to convince the town her claims were true, but the only person who believes her is Homer. However, she convinces the municipal government to check Mr. Springfield's body for evidence of a legendary silver tongue. The skeleton contains no silver tongue, despite Lisa's suspicions that it would. However, Lisa soon figures out that the town historian Hollis Hurlbut stole the tongue before anyone else could see it. She tracks him down and confronts him, and he confesses that he wanted to protect the myth of the silver tongue. The two decide to go public with their discovery, but just as Lisa is about to, she then realizes Jebediah Springfield's good image means too much to the town, so she decides to keep the truth a secret.

[edit] Cromulent and embiggens

Cromulent means "valid, acceptable", or, possibly, "commonplace". Embiggen, coined by Dan Greaney, means "to make bigger", or, used symbolically, means "to empower". The DVD commentary for "Lisa the Iconoclast" makes a point of reinforcing that "embiggens" and "cromulent" were completely made up by the writers and have since taken on a life of their own via the Internet and other media. "Cromulent" has since appeared in the Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English.^[1] An experimental theater troupe in Minneapolis, Minnesota calls itself the Cromulent Shakespeare Company.

When schoolteacher Edna Krabappel hears the Springfield town motto "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man," she comments she'd never heard the word "embiggens" before moving to Springfield. Miss Hoover, another teacher, replies, "I don’t know why; it’s a perfectly cromulent word." Later in the episode, while talking about Homer’s audition for the role of town crier, Principal Skinner states "He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance."

The words have also appeared in the video game Jade Empire, in the dialogue of the character Qui the Promoter.

[edit] Cultural references

The name of Donald Sutherland's character, Hollis Hurlbut, is based on the names of two Harvard freshman dorms, Hollis Hall and Hurlbut Hall. (List of Harvard dormitories); a large number of Simpsons writers (past and present) are Harvard College alumni. Hurlbut's line "Here's Johnny-cakes!" spoofs the line spoken in the movie Shining and/or the line by Ed McMahon in the opening line given to introduce Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.

Lisa jokingly claims she has "Chester A. Arthritis" in the historical society. This is a reference to the twenty first president of the United States Chester A. Arthur. Hollis Hurlbut appears to have not understood the joke, as he asks Lisa if she had arthritis. According to show runner Bill Oakley in the commentary for the episode, this line was improvised by guest star Donald Sutherland.

During the scene were Jebediah Springfield and George Washington are fighting; Betsy Ross walks in with a design for the United States flag, telling Washington, she couldn't find any red hearts, yellow moons, green clovers, in an allusion to breakfast cereal Lucky Charms.

The parade scene at the end (specifically, the part where Homer walks in, bumps Flanders out of the way, and takes his tri-cornered hat and bell) is a take off on the parade at the end of Animal House, a movie Donald Sutherland starred in.

The actual reason for the tear in Washington's painting was that First Lady Dolley Madison tore it out of its frame when the Presidential Mansion was on fire during the Burning of Washington in the War of 1812.

When Jebediah Springfield's grave is being dug up, the shovel flings dirt onto the grave of Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson was buried in his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois.

Donald Sutherland's character, Hollis Hurlbut expresses his belief that Jebediah Springfield is the equal of such revolutionary leaders as William Dawes and Samuel Otis.

Near the end of the show, the mayor has a hit-man attempt to shoot Lisa before she can reveal the truth. However, she leaves the podium and the shot misses.