Template:Featured Episode
Featured Episode
"Bart vs. Australia" is the 16th episode of The Simpsons' sixth season; the episode marks the first time the family has visited another country. In Australia, the episode was met with criticism due to its hugely inaccurate and stereotypical portrayal of the country, although it has been accepted as typical American satire and is still aired as a re-run as often as all other episodes. Some Australian fans of the series rather consider it an honor that Australia was featured so much in an episode at all. Subsequent Simpsons episodes exploited existing stereotypes of other countries, but this episode actually fabricated things about Australia wholesale, as the Simpsons producers admit in the DVD commentary for this episode.
Plot
The episode begins with a bathroom products race between Bart and Lisa in the bathroom sink. Lisa wins and Bart suggests she won because her shampoo was in the "inner lane" to his toothpaste. Lisa explains the Coriolis Effect to Bart (not entirely correctly), but he does not believe her. He makes a collect call to an Australian boy, and asks him about which way the water drains. The line is kept open for several hours. When Bart does not hang up, the boy's father is billed $900.00 ("Nine hundred dollareydoos"). The man wants Bart to pay, but Bart mocks him. Bart receives dozens of collection letters in the mail, but does nothing about them.
