Bye, Bye, Nerdie
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"Bye, Bye, Nerdie"
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Episode Information
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"Bye, Bye, Nerdie" is the sixteenth episode of broadcast season 12 of The Simpsons and the two hundred sixty-fourth episode overall. It originally aired on March 11, 2001. The episode was written by John Frink and Don Payne and directed by Lauren MacMullan. It guest stars Kathy Griffin as Francine Rhenquist.
Contents
Synopsis[edit]
- Lisa's attempts to befriend a new student at Springfield Elementary result in constant bullying by the student, leading her to try to find out why some kids bully others. Meanwhile, Homer sets up a baby-proofing business.
Plot[edit]
Before school, Bart and Lisa are not ready and Marge realizes that the school bus is only two blocks away. Marge rushes to get the kids ready for school, but they are slightly too late and the bus passes them. Not wanting them to miss school, Marge chases the bus down with the kids in her car. When Marge comes up alongside the bus, Otto thinks that she is trying to start a drag race between them instead. Otto puts his foot down and enters the abandoned aqueduct, with Marge on his trail. After coming out the other side of the aqueduct, Marge manages to get in front of the bus and stops Otto. She tells Bart and Lisa to get on the bus, despite them having stopped right outside the school. Bart and Lisa get on the bus anyway and Otto realizes that he forgot to pick up the new kid and drives off to do that. On the way there, the other kids gossip and imagine who the new kid will be. When Francine Rhenquist gets on the bus, everyone is disappointed and says mean things about her to each other. Seeing this, Lisa feels sorry for her and says that somebody should talk to her.
At home, Homer and Marge are bored and do not have anything to do when they hear the doorbell ring. They rush to the door to find a sales lady who tells them that their baby is dead. She then reveals that this is part of her sales tactic to try to sell baby-proofing equipment to them. Homer and Marge let the lady into the house, who then pretends to be a baby going around the kitchen to show hazards. After struggling to open a bottle of what turns out to be baby formula, Homer and Marge are convinced that they need her services. However, Homer does not like the cost of her services and kicks her out.
At school, Lisa sees Francine sitting alone in the playground and goes to talk to her. However, Francine punches Lisa in the eye. At home, Homer and Marge attempt to comfort Lisa, with Homer telling her that he used to have a bully problem in grade school, flashing back to when he bullied Smithers. Marge tells Lisa that she should try to bond with Francine over a shared interest and they settle on Malibu Stacy. Meanwhile, Homer starts baby-proofing the house. At school the next day, Lisa approaches Francine at the lockers and is happy to see that she also has a Malibu Stacy doll. Lisa starts eagerly talking about the doll until she realizes that it is actually her doll that Francine had stolen from her locker. Francine bites the head off the doll and spits it at Lisa, saying that it tastes like it is hers. She then shoves Lisa into a locker, next to the locker she had shoved Milhouse into.
At home, Homer is nailing cushions to furniture so Maggie will not hurt herself. Maggie gets hold of the nail gun and starts shooting Homer with it, with Marge rushing over to take it from her. After showing Marge that he had also encased the phone in concrete so Maggie could not accidentally order poison, he decides to set up his own baby-proofing business, Wee Care. At school, the other bullies are pelting Martin with tomatoes when Lisa goes up to them to ask for protection. The bullies are happy to accept at first until Lisa tells them that it is Francine who is bullying her. They refuse Lisa their services because they do not deal with girls and Nelson decides to talk to Lisa. Nelson tells Lisa that they will likely never know why bullies go for the smart kids but leave other kids alone, but that is not good enough for Lisa, who decides to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, Homer's baby-proofing business becomes a hit, with him going to many houses in Springfield.
Lisa asks Groundskeeper Willie for access to the security recordings so she can work out why Francine targets her. After seeing Francine find her when Lisa was hiding under a table, she sees Francine acting cordially toward her at the swimming pool when Francine had a nose clip on. Lisa realizes that this means it could be related to smell. However, Francine finds Lisa in the security room and attacks her once more. Lisa then has Martin, Milhouse, and Database working up a sweat on treadmills so she can gather their sweat. When Drederick Tatum is giving a talk to Bart's class, Lisa asks him if she can wipe him with a damp cloth. The heavyweight champion agrees and Lisa dabs him with what she has dubbed "Poindextrose". Nelson immediately gets up and attacks Tatum while crying because he does not want to do it. Meanwhile, Homer finds out that his baby-proofing business has made services that rely on babies getting injured struggle, so he decides to end his business and tell everyone to undo the baby-proofing.
At the 12th Annual Big Science Thing, Lisa presents Poindextrose to the scientists there. At first, the scientists dismiss her because she is a little girl. When Lisa tells them that bullying may be due to chemicals, the scientists are shocked. Lisa then proves herself by revealing Francine in a cage. She applies Poindextrose to herself, causing Francine to become enraged. She gets Professor Frink to open the cage, releasing the bully, who immediately charges at Lisa. Lisa then sprays herself with something that stops Francine in her tracks. The scientists are shocked that Lisa has created a bully repellent, which Lisa reveals to be salad dressing that blocks Francine's smell receptors. Lisa is awarded first place in the Big Science Thing and as her family congratulate her, Francine goes on a rampage, attacking the scientists. Francine's parents tell them that Francine will tire herself out soon as Francine lunges at the camera.
Production[edit]
The episode was originally pitched as "Lisa the Bully" and at the end of act two, she threw a punch at Francine but hit Principal Skinner instead[1] and ended up getting sent to juvie.[2] Act three would have focused on Lisa in juvie, where she was the quiet inmate who just wanted to do her time and keep her nose clean. However, she would find the other inmates being used to make illegal blue jeans, but she ignores this and other issues that would bother her outside of juvie so she doesn't get her time there extended.[1] The original third act may have been thrown out due to the lack of recurring characters in it.[2]
When writing the episode, the producers wanted to make a lot of observations about being the new kid at school, in particular other kids looking for anything they perceive as different or weird about them.[1] "Bye, Bye, Nerdie" was the first episode to be directed by Lauren MacMullan. MacMullan previously worked on Mission Hill, which was created by former Simpsons showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. MacMullan designed Francine and was obsessed with her being "sort of a professional bully," which is why she carries her lunchbox around like a briefcase. MacMullan wanted her lunchbox to have a silhouette of the main character from The Professional on it, but the producers didn't get it.[3]
The subplot about baby-proofing is based on an instance where a salesperson visited the house of writer Don Payne and his wife to see if their home was safe for children and tried to scare them into buying stuff they didn't really need.[2] The subplot was part of the original pitch.[1][2]
Reception[edit]
In its original broadcast, "Bye, Bye, Nerdie" was watched by approximately 8.8 million households, receiving an 8.7 Nielsen rating.[4]
As of May 2026, "Bye, Bye, Nerdie" has a 6.6 rating on IMDb.[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Scully, Mike (2009). Commentary for "Bye, Bye, Nerdie", in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Payne, Don (2009). Commentary for "Bye, Bye, Nerdie", in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season.
- ↑ MacMullan, Lauren (2009). Commentary for "Bye, Bye, Nerdie", in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season.
- ↑ Animation World Network - "U.S. Primetime TV Ratings For The Week Of March 5 - 11, 2001"
- ↑ IMDb - "Bye, Bye, Nerdie"
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