Bart's Comet

At the end of Science Week, Skinner launches a weather balloon. Before the launch, Bart sabotaged it, making it look like Skinner bending over and ripping his pants with the sign "Hi! I'm Big Butt Skinner." Skinner decides to punish Bart by having him help with his amateur astronomy—at 4:30 AM. It is Skinner's dream to find something in the sky and have it named after him. They sight something, but it is only the weather balloon, and Skinner runs off to catch it. Bart then tampers with the telescope and accidentally locates a comet, which he is credited with the discovery of, after phoning the coordinates in to the local observatory. When Skinner hears about this, he cries out in anguish, and accidentally lets the weather balloon go (prompting another cry of anguish).

Bart earns praise for discovering a new comet. Even the school nerds (Lisa included), the "Superfriends", Ham, Email, Cosine, Report Card and Database, invite him to have lunch with them and give him the nickname "Cosmos." However, his praise is dashed when scientists discover that the comet is heading straight for Springfield. Prof. Frink proposes a plan to launch a missile at the comet. Everyone's fear is dispelled (with the exception of Moe, whose bar would be destroyed whether the plan succeeded or not)...until the missile flies too high, lost control of its servo-guidance mechanism, flies past the comet and blows up the only bridge out of town, dooming everyone in Springfield.

Springfield is left with only six hours before impact. Congress proposes a bill to evacuate Springfield, but it is defeated when an amendment concerning taxpayer money being allocated to "the perverted arts" is added onto it. To help his family, Homer decides that they stay in the bunker that Flanders built. Anticipating this, Ned built the bomb shelter for both families - however Homer needs some cajoling to agree to share. One hour before Springfield is destroyed, almost everyone in town demands a place in the bunker; however, Homer is unable to close the door and someone has to leave. After the people make a list of who will be needed after the explosion, Homer says that the "world of the future" will not need left-handed stores and tells Ned to go. While everyone is trying to pass the remaining time, Homer feels guilty and leaves; all the rest leave the bomb shelter as well. As the comet enters the atmosphere, it burns up from contact with the extra thick layer of pollution over Springfield. It pops the weather balloon and destroys Ned's bunker. During entry into the Earth's atmosphere the comet burns up and is reduced to the size of a chihuahua's head... exactly as Homer had predicted earlier. The thought of their father actually being right about something is so strange and inexplicable that Bart and Lisa become scared, as does Homer himself. The town then decide to burn down the observatory to prevent a similar incident ever happening again.

[edit] Cultural references

Waldo clearly seen at top-left of the image.

The episode's main plot is similar to Meteor.^[2]
Santa's Little Helper and Snowball are shown watching 'Lassie' on TV during the night. In the space of a few seconds, Lassie is referred to as 'boy', then as 'girl', then as 'boy' again.
During the scene in the bomb shelter, Waldo from Where's Waldo? initially appears near the top-left of frame during a group shot, imitating the style of the Where's Waldo? books. After a cut to a close-up, subsequent group shots in the shelter show that Waldo is gone.
Parts of this episode's plot are similar to The Twilight Zone episode "The Shelter".
The shelter being destroyed after everyone leaves is similar to an episode of Gilligan's Island^{[citation needed]}.
The mob deciding to burn down the observatory at the end of the episode to prevent future disasters is similar to what the Star-mad mob did in Isaac Asimov's Nightfall.

The episode makes references to Back to the Future, including when Professor Frink accidentally sets his town model on fire, just like Doc Brown.^[2]
The scene where the town has turned out to view the missile striking the comet resembles a scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
When Skinner points to the Three Wise Men, they are the Three Stooges.
Flanders and family sing the song "Que Sera Sera" repeatedly throughout this episode, referring to a song first made famous by Hitchcock's 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.
The Super Friends are named after the 1970s cartoon of the same name.^[2]
When Bart is found out by Principal Skinner for the air balloon prank he says to Millhouse "Race you to to Utah Millhouse" This means that Springfield is not in Utah