• Wikisimpsons needs more Featured Article, Picture, Quote, Episode and Comprehensive article nominations!
  • Wikisimpsons has a Discord server! Click here for your invite! Join to talk about the wiki, Simpsons and Tapped Out news, or just to talk to other users.
  • Make an account! It's easy, free, and your work on the wiki can be attributed to you.
TwitterFacebookDiscord

Bart Gets an Elephant

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
Season 5 Episode
097 "Homer Loves Flanders"
098
"Bart Gets an Elephant"
"Burns' Heir" 099
"All that money sounds mighty tempting, Marty, but I think I'm going to have to go with the elephant."
Bart Simpson
"Bart Gets an Elephant"
Bart Gets an Elephant.png
Episode Information
Episode number: 98
Season number: S5 E17
Production code: 1F15
Original airdate: March 31, 1994
Chalkboard gag: "Organ transplants are best left to the professionals"
Couch gag: The family's eyes run in with the lights off. When the light turns on, the bodies run in and push the eyes back into their sockets.
Showrunner(s): David Mirkin
Written by: John Swartzwelder
Directed by: Jim Reardon
DVD features


"Bart Gets an Elephant" is the seventeenth episode of season 5 of The Simpsons and the ninety-eighth episode overall. It originally aired on March 31, 1994. The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Jim Reardon.

Synopsis[edit]

"Bart wins a radio contest which allows him to choose between two prizes: $10,000 or an elephant. Bart picks the elephant and names him Stampy. Homer and Marge decide to give the elephant away because he costs too much to feed, so Bart and Stampy run away together."


Plot[edit]

When Marge forces the rest of the family to clean the house, while cleaning his room, Bart is listening to the radio and hears the announcers say that if the next person they call answers "KBBL is going to give me something stupid," that person will win a prize. Bart, hoping that he will be the next person called, answers the phone every time it rings saying, "KBBL is going to give me something stupid." The KBBL eventually does call and Bart says the right thing and the announcers give him the choice of either winning an elephant or winning $10,000. Bart chooses the elephant over the money, not knowing that the elephant was not really a prize. Over the next few days Bart continues to demand the elephant and eventually gets it, mostly because the station announcers were going to be replaced by a mechanical DJ. Bart names the elephant Stampy, who freaks out Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II and has the habit of putting Bart in his mouth.

The family has mixed feelings about Stampy, with Marge and Homer not thrilled with the situation, but Lisa is more along the same side with Bart, at least when Homer is mistreating him, and Bart loves him. The family does realize eventually that it costs too much to have Stampy around and start looking at the options available to them. One is donating Stampy to a nature preserve, which Homer immediately dismisses because he will not receive any money out of it. Eventually Homer decides to give Stampy to Mr. Blackheart, a man who is obviously an ivory dealer (decked out head to toe in ivory an even giving Homer an ivory cheque), when he offers a substantial amount.

In the lull on figuring out what to do, Stampy goes on a rampage through Springfield in the middle of the night. Wiggum doesn't believe the phone calls about the rampage, and the family is forced to look for Stampy alone. They eventually find him at the Springfield Tar Pits, brooding over a statue of a Wooly Mammoth trapped in the tar. Feeling relieved that they found Stampy, until Homer says he still plans to sell Stampy and have his teeth made into piano keys, much to the family's dismay, they do not realize that Homer has started to sink into the tar himself. He eventually does notice but his efforts to get out only make things worse. He is saved by Stampy, after Barney lights a cigarette and sets himself on fire, with very little notice. Homer then realizes that the best thing to do with Stampy, with a little prodding from the family, is to donate him to the preserve. Stampy quickly tries to take over the rest of elephants by head-butting them into submission, with the Park Manager saying that this may be for several reasons, or is just the equivalent of humans being jerks, since Homer is doing the same thing to him that very moment, angry that he still didn't get any money.

Reception[edit]

"Bart Gets an Elephant" won a 1994 Environmental Media Award in Best Television Episodic Comedy.[1]

In other languages[edit]

Language Name Translation
Germany.png Deutsch "Bart gewinnt Elefant!" Bart won an elephant!
Italy Flag.png Italiano "Bart vince un Elefante" Bart wins an elephant
Flag of Japan.png 日本語 "バートの象物語" Bart's Elephant Story

References[edit]


The Saga of Carl - title screen.png Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Bart Gets an Elephant".
Season 5 Episodes
Homer's Barbershop Quartet Cape Feare Homer Goes to College Rosebud Treehouse of Horror IV Marge on the Lam Bart's Inner Child Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood The Last Temptation of Homer $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling) Homer the Vigilante Bart Gets Famous Homer and Apu Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy Deep Space Homer Homer Loves Flanders Bart Gets an Elephant Burns' Heir Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song The Boy Who Knew Too Much Lady Bouvier's Lover Secrets of a Successful Marriage