Bart the General
"Bart the General"
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Episode Information
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"Bart the General" is the fifth full length episode of The Simpsons' first season, which premiered on the Fox network on February 4, 1990.[1] The episode deals with Bart's troubles with the school bully, Nelson Muntz. Bart chooses to go to war with Nelson and this lead cultural references of classic war movies. The episode written by John Swartzwelder and directed by David Silverman.[1]
Contents
Plot
Bart gets into a fight with Nelson Muntz, the school bully, while protecting the cupcakes that Lisa baked for Miss Hoover. Since Bart accidentally causes Nelson to get a blood nose, Nelson beats up Bart after school and warns him to expect the same treatment the following day. At home, Homer advises Bart to fight dirty, while Marge suggests that he try to reason with Nelson. Choosing Homer's advice, Bart confronts Nelson, but is beaten up again. This time, he turns to the toughest member of the Simpson family, Grampa Simpson.
Grampa introduces Bart to Herman, a crazed veteran who runs an army surplus store. Herman declares war on Nelson and instructs Bart on a full-assault strategy. Bart gathers other kids at school who have been traumatized by Nelson and enlists them as troops. As Herman commands from the field, Bart leads them into battle. Cornering Nelson and his thugs, they commence firing water balloons.
Terrorized, the thugs surrender. Nelson is taken prisoner, but he threatens to kill Bart as soon as he is untied. Afterwards, Herman drafts an armistice, which Bart and Nelson agree to sign. Marge enters with cupcakes, and peace prevails.
Production
This episode was running too long to use the normal opening sequence. It did therefore not feature a chalkboard gag or a couch gag. Instead they just cut to image of the Simpson house.[2] David Silverman was the director and was kind of stressed, because he was doing storyboards for this episode while also directing "Bart the Genius".[2] Originally, he had planned to use the song "War" by Edwin Starr in the episode. The plans were dropped, when they decided that the song did not really fit the story.[2] The episode had problems with the censors, who did not want the characters to say "family jewels" on prime time television.[3] The producers ignored the notes and "family jewels" remained in the episode.
Two new characters were introduced in this episode. The first one is Nelson Muntz, who remains a frequently used recurring character.[4] The second is Herman who has been used less.[4] The design of Herman except for only having one arm was inspired by the look of the writer John Swartzwelder. The voice was partly inspired by George H. W. Bush and performed by Harry Shearer.[3] The original idea with Herman was that every time he would be shown he would have a different story to why he only has one arm.[3]
Cultural references
The episode featured several references to war films. Several lines of dialogue, Bart slapping one of his soldiers for "being a disgrace" and the music are lifted directly from the film Patton from 1970. Fox owned the rights to this film, so it was no problem to use the soundtrack.[3] The marching sequence is a nod to Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket from 1986.[4] and the The Longest Day from 1962 is also referenced.[2]
Reception
Matt Groening notes on the commentary track that he finds it strange how controversial this episode seemed at the time of its release. Today, they would go a lot further and to him this episode now seems harmless.[3] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "Some good lines and setpieces aside - we love Bart's fantasy of death at Nelson's hands - this episode nevertheless feels a bit unsure of itself, particularly towards the end."[4] In a DVD review of the first season David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3/5 and adds "Another episode that helped to propel Bart's popularity into the stratosphere ...".[5]
Use in scientific research
"Bart the General" and Seinfeld's "The Tape" were used in a Dartmouth College experiment to study brain activity in relation to humorous moments in television shows. The results were published in a 2004 issue of the academic journal Neurolmage. The researchers noted, "During moments of humor detection, significant [brain] activation was noted in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus ... and left inferior frontal gyrus".[6]
Trivia
- Lisa calls her teacher "Mrs. Hoover" instead of "Miss Hoover."
- During their first "fight," Nelson hits Bart twelve times in the face before he knocks Bart out.
- The first episode we see Bart cry, Homer then proceeds to dry his tears with a hairdryer.
- The first episode we see the retirement home where Grandpa Simpson lives.
- Grandpa's list of words he does not want to hear on television again:
- Bra
- Horny
- Family Jewels
- This is the first episode where we see Jasper Beardly (Even he was in the Town Hall in Homer's Odyssey.)
- There are African shields and spears in Herman's antique shop.
- Milhouse now has blue hair.
- In Herman's model of the town, he misspells the "Kwik-E-Mart" as "Quick-E-Mart."
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Template:Cite book
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Silverman, David. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the General" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Groening, Matt. (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart the General" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). Bart the General. BBC. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- ↑ Grelck, David B (2003). The Simpsons: The Complete First Season. WDBG Productions. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- ↑ qtd. in Keay Davidson. "So these scientists go into a lab to see what's funny ... - They find gender differences in how humor affects brain". San Francisco Chronicle. November 21, 2005. A1.
