Bart the Murderer
"Bart the Murderer"
| ||
Episode Information
|
"Bart the Murderer" is the fourth episode of Season 3 of The Simpsons.
Contents
Synopsis
The day begins with Bart preparing for the school day, during which he is supposed to go on a field trip to the chocolate factory. But his day quickly turns sour, as Homer steals his cereal prize, Santa's Little Helper eats his homework, and he misses the school bus and arrives late for school. During recess he rips his pants, and finally, he realizes he forgot his permission slip for the field trip, and is forced to spend the day at the school with Principal Skinner.
On his way home from school, he slips on his skateboard in front of a local mafia hangout. They take him in and after he coincidentally picks a winning horse for mafia don Fat Tony, begins to mix drinks for them, and they hire him as their personal bartender.
Not knowing that his new boss is a mafioso, Bart begins to unwittingly help Fat Tony, and accept gifts from him, and even hides a stolen cigarette shipment in his bedroom. But soon, it becomes apparent that Bart has been taken in by criminals, and Marge instructs Homer to go and talk to Fat Tony about Bart. Carrying over his new persona into the schoolyard, Bart gets a detention for trying to bribe Principal Skinner. As a result, he is not able to mix drinks for Fat Tony's big meeting, and he becomes angry. When Skinner goes missing, Bart suspects Tony may have something to do with it, and begins to have nightmares about Skinner's death. Bart approaches Tony who denies having anything to do with Skinner's disappearance, but Chief Wiggum bursts in anyway and arrests them all for the murder anyway.
A trial begins, and Lionel Hutz acts as Bart's lawyer. On the stand, Fat Tony and his gang name Bart as the real don. Just when it seems as though Bart is going to be found guilty, Skinner bursts into the courtroom, and tells everyone that he was in fact trapped in a newspaper pile in his garage for a week. The case is dismissed. Bart quits Fat Tony's employ.
Trivia
- Fat Tony's prisoner number was 8F03, the production code for this episode.
- All the horses in the third race at Shelbyville Downs are named for famous cartoon phrases: Sufferin' Succotash, Yabba-Dabba-Doo, Ooh Ain't I A Stinker, I Yam What I Yam, and Don't Have A Cow.
- There is a large drum of nuclear waste seen in Homer's basement in this episode.
- Bart's forgotten permission slip can be seen (just barely) under his pillowcase before he wakes up at the beginning of the episode.
Cultural references
- This episode takes a lot of plot points from the film Goodfellas. Like the film, a boy mixes drinks for the mob gang, and there is also a cigarette hijacking.
Quotes
- Bart: Uh, say, are you guys crooks?
- Tony: Bart, um, is it wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family?
- Bart: No.
- Tony: Well, suppose you got a large starving family. Is it wrong to steal a truckload of bread to feed them?
- Bart: Uh uh.
- Tony: And, what if your family don't like bread? They like... cigarettes?
- Bart: I guess that's okay.
- Tony: Now, what if instead of giving them away, you sold them at a price that was practically giving them away. Would that be a crime, Bart?
- Bart: Hell, no!
