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{{Episode
|image= Lisa university.png
|number= 289
|season=13
|snumber=20
|prodcode= DABF15
|airdate= May 12, [[2002]]
|couchgag= The family run in to see the [[Squeaky-voiced teen]] and a girl making out on the couch
|guests= [[Robert Pinsky]] as {{Ch|Robert Pinsky|himself}}
|showrunner1= Al Jean
|writer= [[Jon Vitti]]
|director= [[Lauren MacMullan]]
|DVD features=yes
}}

"'''Little Girl in the Big Ten'''" is the twentieth episode of [[season 13]] of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and the two-hundred and eighty-ninth episode overall. It originally aired on May 12, [[2002]]. The episode was written by [[Jon Vitti]] and directed by [[Lauren MacMullan]]. It guest stars [[Robert Pinsky]] as {{Ch|Robert Pinsky|himself}}.

== Synopsis ==
{{Desc|In order to avoid a failing grade in gym, [[Lisa]] takes up gymnastics, which she uses to pose as a college student. Meanwhile, [[Bart]] is diagnosed with "Panda" virus and is forced to spend a week living in a plastic bubble.}}

== Plot ==
[[Lisa]] cannot do any sports and notices that she is failing P.E. She joins a gymnastics group taught by Coach [[Lugash]]. She gets encouragement from the ghost of {{Ch|John F. Kennedy}} in one of her dreams. Lisa notices she has perfect balance due to the encouragement from the dream and because she has a large head. Lisa starts doing extremely well in gym class. After gym she meets [[Tina]] and [[Carrie]], two girls who she believes are just like her, eight years old and smart, only to realizes that they are college students. Lisa says that she too is a college student as she wants to earn their friendship and they give her a ride home in their car and invite her to one of Robert Pinky's poetry readings. Meanwhile, [[Bart]] is at [[Krusty Burger]] with [[Grampa]]. He reaches in and pulls a Krusty-saurus toy out of his meal only for a mosquito to fly out the bottom of it and bite him and becomes infected with the Panda Virus. To prevent it from being caught by any other people, [[Dr. Hibbert]] places Bart inside a giant plastic bubble. Bart cannot adapt to life in side the bubble due to problems like not being able to eat and take a bath. Although [[Homer]] does fill the bubble up with water and rolls it around the yard to give him a 'bath'. 

Lisa thinks she is getting away with pretending to be a college student because she is going to poetry readings and night and then attending her second grade class at school in the day. While she is going to [[Springfield University]], [[Milhouse]], [[Martin]] and [[Database]] follow her. While Lisa is at a lecture about [[The Itchy & Scratchy Show|Itchy and Scratchy]], they blow Lisa's cover and her college friends don't like her anymore. They start insulting her, and she runs out of the auditorium crying. Lisa tries to convince Homer and Marge that college suits her, but they refuse to listen, saying that college is no place for her at all. When Lisa returns to school the next day, she finds out she also lost a lot of friends her age.

Meanwhile, Bart gets used to his bubble and uses it to become popular and it also amuses Homer. Bart tells Lisa that in order to get her friends back she has to pull a prank on [[Principal Skinner]]. A day later, while [[Superintendent Chalmers]] is dedicating a parking annex to principal Skinner, Bart rolls Lisa while she is inside his bubble. He then pushes her of the school roof and she lands on the chocolate cake next to Principal Skinner. The chocolate cake splatters all over Principal Skinner. Lisa then gets her old friends back because of this and Bart develops {{W|agorophobia}} because he is outside his bubble and goes to live in an air vent, only to be sucked down as the credits start to roll.

{{Images|ep=yes}}
{{season 13}}

[[Category:2002]]
[[Category:Lisa episodes]]
[[Category:Bart episodes]]
[[Category:Education-themed episodes]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Jon Vitti]]
[[Category:Episodes directed by Lauren MacMullan]]

[[sv:Little Girl in Big Ten]]