They Saved Lisa's Brain
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"They Saved Lisa's Brain" is the twenty-second episode of The Simpsons' tenth season. The episode aired on May 9, 1999.
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[edit] Synopsis
A low-fat pudding, Grandma Plopwell's, is the sponsor of a Springfield contest that celebrates stupidity. Many Springfield residents enter the contest, but things do not go well, and the contest leads to a fight among participants. Lisa denounces Springfield for its anti-intellectualism, and writes a letter that impresses Springfield's population of intellectuals, particularly their Mensa chapter, which Lisa joins after she brings a pie.
She joins Mensa alongside Comic Book Guy, Dr. Hibbert, Principal Skinner, Professor Frink, and Lindsay Naegle. They fear that Springfield's quality is down because of the less brilliant having power over their civic institutions. The Mensa group goes to confront Mayor Quimby, until he escapes from the city by plane when he thinks the group wants to arrest him for his acts of corruption. The town's constitution states that in the absence of the mayor, the town is to be governed by the smartest people in it. Now in control of Springfield, the group hopes that things will become better in town.
Once in control, however, the group allows power to go to their heads. They begin to bicker over their ideas for Springfield, which include banning green traffic lights, banning most sports and playing only classical music at the dog races. They begin to fight until Stephen Hawking comes in to end the fight.
Meanwhile, the angry Springfield townspeople, furious at the new laws, surround the intellectuals in an angry mob and bring an end to Mensa's rule.
In the end, Stephen Hawking and Homer meet at Moe's for a drink, until Homer imitates him in an attempt to make him pay the tab, and gets punched.
In the episode's other storyline, Homer has erotic photos taken of himself to give to Marge as a gift.
[edit] Cultural references
- The episode title is play on the name of the cult science fiction movie, They Saved Hitler's Brain.
- The scene where the Mensans decide to hold a Renaissance-themed meeting in the park, in costume and in character, is possibly based upon the Society for Creative Anachronism: a historical reenactment group devoted to studying the Middle Ages. SCA members not only have a strong reputation for being intellectuals, but their gatherings are often held in public parks. This can and does lead to the occasional conflict with a 21st-century lout who adopts a hostile attitude towards the group's presence and activities -- such as when Lenny and Carl refuse to give up the gazebo.
- The erotic photographer is modeled after famous Rolling Stone Magazine photographer Annie Leibovitz.
- The Comic Book Guy's T-Shirt-joke "C:/DOS C:/DOS/RUN RUN/DOS/RUN" refers to the American children's book series Dick and Jane, where the phrases "See Spot. See Spot Run. Run, Spot, Run" were moulded.
- Stephen Hawking speaks of his "failure to formulate a unified field theory" - Albert Einstein coined this phrase to describe a theoretical theory that would relate all known forces. No physicist has come up with such a theory yet, even Stephen Hawking (regarded by many as the smartest person alive).
- The house in which the Mensa meeting is held is reminiscent of a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie House.
- The novel Walden II was mentioned when Lindsay Naegle is describing the type of city that she wishes to create
[edit] Trivia
- Doctor Hibbert talks of moving back to Alabama, showing that Springfield is not in that state.
[edit] External links
- "They Saved Lisa's Brain" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "They Saved Lisa's Brain" at the Internet Movie Database
