Lisa's essay that wins her the titular trip to Washington has a 300 word limit. To both pay tribute to the episode as well as prevent myself from writing another way too long ANATOMY OF: post, I'm capping my review of this episode at 300 words - starting after this paragraph - and then listing my 10 favorite jokes from the episode (this will be how I close out these weekly #TBT posts.)
This is a season 3 Simpsons episode so it's not quite clicking on all cylinders yet. There's just not a lot of humor here other than the focused satire of Washington and Congress being corrupt and all that jazz. At least the basic notes with the core family members are hit. It's a Lisa episode so she gets to do her thing throughout. Homer's obsession with Reader's Digest is hilarious, even if a little before its time since it came literally a full decade BEFORE he got the crayon out of his brain and his gleeful enjoyment of the "all expenses paid trip" to D.C. is fun (too bad he didn't enjoy the marked limo ride.) Bart is classic early Bart, trolling the shit out of people in D.C. by hitting all the buttons for every floor on the elevator, going HAM in The Spirit of St. Louis and slingshotting the annoying pianist. Marge does very little (as usual) other than joke about how the Washington Monument looks like a penis...but she DOES drop a top 5 joke of the episode late on.
The pantomime villain of the episode is Springfield's Congressman Bob Arnold, who takes a bribe for cutting down Springfield Forest at the Winifred Beecher Howe Memorial because, as he says to the lobbyist, "I told you no one ever came here." And he's probably right - a memorial of a fictional historical women's rights activist probably isn't a top tourist trap and thus great for taking bribes. Anyway Lisa sees this and decides to drop TRUTH BOMBS in her NEW essay & gets the guy (and other corrupt Congressmen) arrested. Her essay loses, of course, but she still gets a portion of the prize via the winner's acknowledgment of her courage. Good stuff. The end.
That's 300 words on the dot, if you're counting (I was!) I'm so I'm so I'm so I'm so I'm so proud of myself. Anyway, time for my 10 favorite jokes from the episode, counting down from 10. Hyperlinks to Youtube will be provided whenever possible, of course.
10) "Ugh, you have those damn badges. Okay! This tub was installed in 1894..." - Barbara Bush
9) "Congressman this is Springfield National Forest. Basically what we wanna do is....cut her down!" - Jerry
8) Yeah! Damn right!! (this was re: a HOF NELSON MUNTZ speech about AMURRIKH)
7) "Bart, maybe this is something you'd like to do too!" - Marge. "Mom, it's a nice thought, but we both know that THIS *pointing to Lisa* is the pony to bet on," Bart.
6) Lousy cheap country...
5) "Imprisoned Congressman Becomes Born Again Christian," - Marge (it's funny because it's true.)
4) ""You don't wanna eat? What'd you do, get one of those stomach staples?" - Lenny
3) "We the Purple?" What the hell was that?
2) "We have quite a few women Senators, you know!" - Bob Arnold. "Only 2, I checked," - Lisa. "Ahaha, you're a sharp one." - Bob Arnold. (keep in mind that this was 20 years ago. Look at all the progress the Republicans have made! They've DOUBLED that number!!!)
1) Aww, isn't that nice? A politician who CARES!/If I ever vote it'll be for him!
Well, hope you enjoyed this and sorry if I got too political at times. It was, after all, a political episode. Check back next Thursday when I do a #TBT on one of the other 18 classic Simpsons episodes eating up space on my DVR. Until then, stick around and read some of the other stuff on this blog! The other posts are longer and less political! You'll like them!
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