Bart vs. Australia

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The Simpsons episode
"Bart vs. Australia"

The episode's promotional image.
Episode no.	119
Prod. code	2F13
Orig. Airdate	February 19, 1995
Writer(s)	Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein
Director(s)	Wesley Archer
Chalkboard	"I will not hang donuts on my person"
Couch gag	The family swims to the couch
Guest star(s)	Phil Hartman as Evan Conover
DVD commentary by	David Mirkin Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Wes Archer
SNPP capsule
Season 6 September 4, 1994 – May 21, 1995
Bart of Darkness Lisa's Rival Another Simpsons Clip Show Itchy & Scratchy Land Sideshow Bob Roberts Treehouse of Horror V Bart's Girlfriend Lisa on Ice Homer Badman Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy Fear of Flying Homer the Great And Maggie Makes Three Bart's Comet Homie the Clown Bart vs. Australia Homer vs. Patty & Selma A Star is Burns Lisa's Wedding Two Dozen and One Greyhounds The PTA Disbands! 'Round Springfield The Springfield Connection Lemon of Troy Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)
List of all Simpsons episodes...

"Bart vs. Australia" is the 16th episode of The Simpsons' sixth season; the episode marks the first time the family has visited another country. While some people in Australia were offended by this episode,^[1] it was generally received there in the light hearted way it was intended to be.

1 Synopsis
2 Trivia
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins with a bathroom products race between Bart and Lisa in the bathroom sink. Lisa wins and Bart suggests she won because her shampoo was in the "inner lane" to his toothpaste. Lisa explains the Coriolis Effect to Bart (not entirely correctly), but he does not believe her. He makes collect calls around the world until he calls an Australian boy, and asks him about which way the water drains. The line is kept open for several hours. When Bart does not hang up, the boy's father is billed AUS$900.00 ("Nine hundred dollaridoos"). The man wants Bart to pay, but Bart mocks him. Bart receives dozens of collection letters in the mail, but does nothing about them.

Eventually, Australia indicts Bart for fraud. The United States State Department wants to send him to prison, but settles upon having Bart personally apologize in Australia. The family is sent to Australia, where they start exploring the culture. Bart makes his apology, but they want to give the additional punishment of a boot to his buttocks, using a giant boot (a parody of the Michael P. Fay caning incident in Singapore). Bart and Homer escape the booting and they try to run back to the embassy. Bart agrees to have them do the booting anyway, but as he is about to receive his punishment, he moons the Australians. The Simpson family leaves the outraged country in a helicopter in a scene similar to the Fall of Saigon.

In the subplot, Bart brings his pet frog past customs into Australia where it reproduces and spreads rapidly throughout the country eventually ruining its ecology (a reference to the actual introduction of non-native Cane Toads into Australia and similar events like the famous Australian rabbit plague). As the family is being flown home they happily remark upon the destruction that can be caused by introducing a foreign species into a new environment ... as the camera pans out to reveal a koala hanging from one of the helicopter's struts.

[edit] Trivia

The supposed scientific knowledge that drains flow differently in the Southern Hemisphere because of the Coriolis effect is actually a myth - the Coriolis effect does influence the direction of the flow, but other factors (such as how the water is injected into the bowl) have a much greater impact, making the Coriolis effect negligible. In fact, because of the way it enters the bowl, water in Australian toilets does not normally swirl in either direction. Whereas toilets in America flush with the bowl being first emptied of its wastes and then refilled with fresh water, Australian toilets are flushed by having fresh water rush into the bowl from all around the inside rim, and displace the waste by washing it over the S-bend and down the drain. In other words, the toilet is emptied and refilled simultaneously, and the fresh water meets the waste water at the bottom in a tumultuous mass.
The Australian prime minister is referred to as "Andy". Australia's prime minister in 1995 was Paul Keating. However, this may be a reference to Andrew Peacock, an Australian politician who in Foreign Affairs in the mid-1990s, and later (after the airing of this episode) an ambassador to the United States.

The parliament house is in Canberra, a large city and not a town as is portayed in this episode. Moreover, if the Simpsons did indeed travel by airplane, they would have landed in either Melbourne or Sydney, both of which are major Australian cities with residential, industrial and business areas.
The Parliament incription reads: Parliament-haus der Austria with "al" and a caret inscribed between "r" and "i".
The "knifey-spoony" scene is a reference to Crocodile Dundee.