Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade

In a parody of the opening of the 1960s sitcom, Get Smart!, Homer goes through many futuristic doors and passageways until he reaches the phone booth, falls through the floor, and lands on the couch (with the rest of the family already seated).

Guest star(s)

Tony Bennett

Season 14
November 3, 2002 – May 18, 2003

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"Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade" is the third episode of The Simpsons' fourteenth season. It aired on November 17, 2002.

1 Plot
2 Cultural references
3 Trivia

[edit] Plot

The family is bored with the terrible reality shows inundating the (then) six major networks. Luckily, Bart has a suggestion: buy a satellite dish. They do when Homer makes money from betting on a horse named No Risk and buys a satellite system with over 500 channels. Homer and Bart get addicted to it, leading Bart to not study for an important achievement test that is about to occur, even as Lisa is spending all her time preparing. During the test, Bart begins hallucinating, showing what he saw on TV in the school. Once the test is done, the results are in: Not only does Bart fail the test and is held back to the third grade, but Lisa also passes the test and goes up to the third grade, where they meet their new teacher. Sibling rivalry ensues.

In third grade, Bart and Lisa each have their own results. Bart is doing extremely well on tests, while Lisa has a hard time adjusting to the conditions of third grade. Their new teacher decides to clamp their desks together after Bart gets an A on a test and Lisa got an A- also because she thinks that Lisa needs Bart's help. Bart says that the test was easy and recites all of the answers to Lisa, which he had memorized from last year in third grade. Lisa proclaims that Bart cheated but the teacher did not hear Bart's recitation and tells Lisa to stop being jealous and changes Bart's grade to an A+. They are made buddies as part of the buddy system on a field trip to Capital City. When they are there, they hear that the flag for the state Springfield is in is an embarrassment (it contains a Confederate flag, despite the state being from the North), and their teacher assigns for homework an assignment to design a new flag. Lisa calls Marge as she designs her flag, which says "To Fraternal Love". On the phone, she complains about and makes fun of Bart, unmindful of the fact that Bart is overhearing the conversation on another phone and getting very angry about her comments.

The next day, Bart, Lisa and the other third-graders hand over their flag designs to the Governor. When the Governor sees Lisa's design, she starts to cry and displays the flag which now reads "Learn to Fart". This appalls Lisa, as Bart innocently admonishes her for making the Governor cry. Later, Bart again teases Lisa and they get in a fight and miss the bus heading back to Springfield. The fight brings them out of the parking lot and into the forest. As a result, the two wind up getting lost.

Back in Springfield, Principal Skinner informs Homer and Marge that Bart and Lisa are missing. He says that they will not spare any expense to find Lisa, and have already elected a Class Clown pro tem (Milhouse) in Bart's absence. They go to Capital City to find them, but Bart and Lisa are confronted by a family of hillbillies, who save them by driving them back to Capital City. Marge is ecstatic on seeing her children safe and sound. Principal Skinner, worried about the effects of placing Bart and Lisa in the same class, suggests that they return to the "status quo ante" - both Simpson kids go back to their proper grades. Everything is back to the way it should be, particularly the sheer contempt with which everyone views Milhouse.

[edit] Cultural references

In Bart's vision in class, Bender from Futurama (Matt Groening's other show), Pikachu from Pokémon, robots from Robot Rumble and Japanese-style Friends appear. He also turns Mrs. Krabappel into Tom Brokaw barfing. The Japanese Friends, Tom Brokaw, and Robot Rumble were all things Bart saw on the satellite TV, and Robot Rumble reoccurs in "I, D'oh-Bot".
When Bart is lifted up in his vision by the TV characters he conjured up with his remote, the song that they sing is Hava Nagila, a famous Hebrew folk song.
M.C. Safety's rap about safety has a similar sound to "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, a song that is widely considered the first breakout hit rap song.
When he learns that Bart and Lisa got lost on their trip to Capital City, Skinner orders Willy to engrave their names on the memorial to the kids who got lost on a school trip on the black wall (a clear parody of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial); one can see the name of members of punk band NOFX such as El Hefe (misspelled as El Jefe) and Fat Mike.
Lisa can be seen reading a book titled "Love in the Time of Coloring Books", a reference to Love in the Time of Cholera.
The two Robots talk a lot like the Daleks from Doctor Who.
When Lisa says "Hyperbolic? Do you even know what that means, Bart?" the orchestral strike that occurs during the word "means" is sampled directly from Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings
Bart says he will make Lisa's flag a "Bart-Mangled Banner," a play on the US national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. That name would become the title of a later episode.
The hillbillies are heading into town to get the new issue of "SPY" magazine. Lisa is correct that the magazine stopped publishing by 2002, as it finished up its run at some point in the 1990s.
The posture of the two human figure cutouts, as well as the theme, of Bart's proposed State flag, is reminiscent of Terrance and Phillip.
At the end of the episode, Principal Skinner breaks the fourth wall by talking about "what this episode has taught us".

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Governor Mary Bailey beat Mr. Burns in the gubernatorial race for governor in the episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", so she is probably a Democrat. She later appeared in the episode "The Seven-Beer Snitch" when she released all of the prisoners in Mr. Burns' new jail to a garbage barge.
When the Simpsons are watching Animal Survivor at the beginning of the episode, the Hypnotoad from Futurama can be briefly seen.
Another (red herring) clue as to the possible location of Springfield. When Bart turns on the satellite TV the beam shows which leaves the Simpsons house. Apparently the Simpsons live near the Great Lakes.
Homer seems to have known about Bart sabotaging Lisa's flag by saying he is from the "Learn to Fart" state.