Grift of the Magi

"Grift of the Magi" is the ninth episode of the eleventh season of The Simpsons. It aired on December 19, 1999.

Plot

On an ordinary day, Bart and Milhouse dress up as ladies and jump on the bed, but when they do this, Bart breaks his coccyx. Dr. Hibbert informs Homer and Marge that Bart will have to use a wheelchair for the time being. When Bart goes to school the next day, the school does not have ramps for the disabled, which changes when Fat Tony and his construction company, "Valdazzo Brothers Olive Oil", decides to build the ramps. They build too many ramps around the school, which later crumble because they are made of paint, breadsticks, and shellac. Fat Tony informs Principal Skinner that he will have to pay $200,000 for damage. In response, Principal Skinner chooses to close Springfield Elementary due to lack of funds. All pleas for help (like Mr. Burns) prove futile until Jim Hope, the president of a company named Kid First Industries, buys the school and privatises it.

At the school, an all-new staff teaches students classes about toys and marketing, which makes Lisa suspicious when her class is asked to name a new toy that they will sell for Christmas. Bart visits Lisa writing lines on the blackboard. When Bart leaves and turns off the classroom lights, Lisa finds light shining through the blackboard. Lisa later discovers that they are a toy company that uses children for research to make a toy, through the use of hidden cameras, tape recording and clear, two-way blackboards. She brings in her parents and Chief Wiggum to investigate, but they do not believe her because the room used for spying on the children was taken out and replaced. Later on, the new toy is named Funzo (a name which Lisa ironically suggested in class) with traits that the students had suggested during a brainstorming session. Lisa takes Bart to the KFI headquarters, until Gary Coleman (as a security guard with varying mental health) stops them. They visit Jim Hope's office and he gives them a free Funzo. Bart and Lisa like it at home, until they discover that Funzo is a toy-killer. They spread the word around Springfield, urging the citizens to boycott Funzo, until Homer, on Christmas Eve, burns all the Funzos in Springfield after stealing them. However, Gary Coleman comes again to stop them, until they get into a discussion of Christmas. Afterwards, they invite Gary Coleman to a Christmas dinner at the Simpson house.

Culture references

• Milhouse sings "Sisters are doin' it for themselves!", a song by the Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin.
• The toy, Funzo, is a parody of the popular Furby dolls (although the Furby dolls were mentioned in the story line as an example of a popular toy).
• Gary Coleman once worked as a security guard in real life. Coleman spoofed Arnold's (Coleman's character in Diff'rent Strokes) catchphrase, "Wha'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?", three times.
• At the end, the narrator says Mr. Burns was visited by three ghosts in the night which showed him the error of his ways, an homage to A Christmas Carol.
• The narrator also says that Moe, in his annual suicide attempt, was shown what the world would be like without him after sticking his head in his oven. This is a reference to both the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.
• This episode's title is a pun on O. Henry's short story The Gift of the Magi.
• Funzo's metallic frame maybe a reference to the metallic frame of the terminator from The Terminator.

Error

• Even though Bart said he wouldn't bring a toy to school, he is shown with a Krusty doll.