THE CLASSICS: BART GETS FAMOUS

Written by John Swartzwelder

Directed by Susie Dieter

Original air date: Feb 3, 1994

The school bus passes Toy Town, the Fireworks Testing Range and The Slide Factory all in Springfield’s Mindless Fun Mile and arrives at the destination of this year’s field trip – the box factory….again. Despite the fascinating tour guide (voiced by Dan Castellaneta doing a great Bob Elliott impersonation), Bart is growing antsy especially as the Channel 6 studios – home of the revered KRUSTY THE KLOWN SHOW – looms across the way. Young Simpson makes a daring escape and soon is conducting his own personal tour through the television facility. Through the deft pilfering of a Danish, Bart is rewarded with a top-flight position in the Krusty organization…..as head go-pher. Eventually, he is inserted into a sketch to replace a lactose intolerant Sideshow Mel. Turning the balsa wood set into a shambles, he utters the immortal line, “I didn’t do it” and a beloved catchphrase is born. The citizens of the world take the innocuous line to heart in typically overwrought fashion. Even the potentially tragic is diffused with its contagious emptiness. The ensuing media hype results in an album, an absurdly premature biography, talk show appearances and the fabulous “I Didn’t Do It Dancers.”

However, as with most one hit wonders, fame is fleeting. The audience quickly becomes apathetic to Bart’s limited repertoire and he’s shown the door. Back home, Lisa exalts, “Now you can go back to just being you instead of a one dimensional character with a silly catchphrase.” On cue, various members of the cast emerge to utter their signature lines while Lisa slinks off to bed.

An amazingly dense and fertile episode, BART GETS FAMOUS feels like it could’ve easily spilled over its allotted running time. One of the first in the series to address the American Hype machine (RADIO BART would fall into that category), BART GETS FAMOUS is indicative of an entry that is labeled self-referential by those who don’t know any better. If anything, self-parody is more in evidence. In the show’s opening minutes, Bart climbs down the steps, happily whistling THE SIMPSONS' theme music only to be admonished by Marge. “I’ve told you not to whistle that annoying tune”, she snaps at him. Later, after Bart’s ascension, we witness him performing the obligatory cash-ins on his freakish popularity such as recording a hastily written Rap song (made up entirely of the words, “I Didn’t Do It”) that are straight from the Simpson’s Big Book of Mass Merchandising.

However, BART GETS FAMOUS operates on a higher level that a mere elbow to the ribs. It also very much a rumination on the severing of Bart’s tenure as the show’s main focus, a harsh indictment of a culturally challenged public who continue to respond to the mediocre and its mind-numbing repetition and a diatribe targeting the banality and ultimate disposability of commercial entertainment. It asks us to reject the slick and superficial in any given art form, and in the case of THE SIMPSONS, suggests we note the substance amidst the favorite sayings, video games and T-shirts.

As always, the sleazy underbelly of show business is represented by Krusty. The big joker is the very epitome of the world-weary trooper who has taken way too much seltzer in the face. Just as Mr. Burns can quite grasp who Homer is, Kristy has absolutely no recollection of Bart despite the litany of charitable deeds performed by the youngster on his behalf. Nowhere is his rampant cynicism more virulent (and hilarious) than in this exchange:

KRUSTY: “Bart, I need to use you in a sketch.”

BART: “You want me to be on the show?”

KRUSTY: “It’s just one line. Mel was supposed to say, but he’s dead.”

BART: “Dead?”

KRUSTY: “….or sick…I don’t know…I forget. Anyway, all you gotta do is say “I’m waiting for a bus.”, and then I hit you with pies for five minutes.

BART: (practicing) “I’m waiting for a bus.”

KRUSTY: “Makes me laugh. Let’s go.”

Before getting his big break, Bart’s main role in the Krusty organization consisted of cleaning the toilet after a particularly nasty clown soiling (“I don’t know what I was thinkin’ last night!") and autographing Krusty’s 8X10 glossies. Memorably, he is even recruited to extract the clown from a slight legal entanglement that involves Bart placing his fingerprints on an incriminating candlestick.

Along with DEEP SPACE HOMER, ROSEBUD, CAPE FEARE and BURNS’ HEIR, BART GETS FAMOUS is one of the jewels of Season Five and – to date – the only episode to feature the disembodied head of Kitty Carlisle. Auditioning for FUTURAMA , no doubt.