The President Wore Pearls
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "The President Wore Pearls" | |
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| Episode no. | 316 |
| Prod. code | EABF20 |
| Orig. Airdate | November 16, 2003 |
| Writer(s) | Dana Gould |
| Director(s) | Mike B. Anderson |
| Chalkboard | None |
| Couch gag | A large Polaroid drops on the couch and develops into a picture of the family |
| Guest star(s) | Michael Moore |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"The President Wore Pearls" is an episode of The Simpsons first broadcast on November 16, 2003 as the third episode of the show's fifteenth season. Lisa is elected student body president. The episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Music And Lyrics (respectively, by Alf Clausen and Dana Gould).
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[edit] Synopsis
Springfield Elementary holds a casino night as a fundraiser, the brainchild of student body president Martin Prince. Homer wins big, but when Martin points out that his winnings can only be redeemed for prizes and not real money, the angry casino patrons riot. After the chaos has cleared, Principal Skinner tells Martin that he must resign as president. An election for a new president is announced, with the hugely popular Nelson Muntz the heavy favorite to win. Lisa signs up to challenge him. During a debate in the school auditorium, she sings a song (a spoof of "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina") about how she will fight for the student's rights, instantly winning them over.
Lisa easily wins the election. The school faculty tells her that as President, she deserves a more glamorous look. Another song is sung (a spoof of "Rainbow High") as the teachers give Lisa a makeover into a fashionable Eva Perón lookalike. She is initially resistant, but gives in since she reasons she'll still be able to fight for the kids. The students love the new Lisa more than ever, but the faculty plan on using her to distract the kids from the fact that they're cutting music, gym, and art from the curriculum to save on the budget. Realizing that she was seduced by glamor, Bart convinces Lisa goes back to her old spiky hair and plain red dress and leads the students in a strike.
The students leave school to protest. Michael Moore (voicing himself) briefly shows up to take the children's' side. The police arrive at the school to handle the young protesters, but Lisa wins them over too. Several other labor unions, including goat milkers, newsroom cue card holders, and theme park zombies, join the strike. Groundskeeper Willie refuses Skinner's order to turn his hose on the students. Realizing that there is no other way out of the crippling strike other than disposing of Lisa, Skinner has her transferred to a school for the gifted. When she arrives there, Homer shows up to explain that he's not driving 45 minutes just to take her to school each day, and so everything ends up back to normal. A subtitle states that the elementary school cancels flu shots and sells loose cigarettes to pay for the restoration of music, art, and gym. The subtitle also states that the producers of the show never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Peron, based on the advice of their lawyers.
[edit] Cultural references
- The episode is a parody of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. It is a musical episode with five songs, most of them parodies of numbers from Evita.
- Much of the last third of the episode pays homage to the events of May 1968 in France.
- Lenny says "But I break just like a little girl", a reference to the Bob Dylan song "Just Like a Woman".
[edit] Trivia
- In this episode we find out that Lisa's email address is smartgirl63_backslash@yahoo.com, which is a valid syntax. It is unknown if this is a fan or castmember, however they will reply as Lisa.
- The song Nelson sings is "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath.
- The students signs include: "Flunk me? Flunk you!" "Give P.E. a chance," "Don't cut off my pianissimo," "What would Jesus glue?" "I like purple," "Paste ain't waste," "Free the kickball 9," and "Don't take away our balls."
- The campaign posters Lisa uses are parodies of the original Evita posters (of the musical)
- Martin says that he got the idea about the casino from an episode of Saved By The Bell. Saved By The Bell was a popular show in the 1990s for teenagers. There is no episode of Saved By The Bell with a casino plotline.
[edit] External links
