Girls Just Want to Have Sums
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“Girls Just Want to Have Sums” is the nineteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on April 30, 2006.
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[edit] Plot
The Simpsons and many other prominent Springfieldians go to see a performance of Stab-A-Lot: Itchy & Scratchy: The Musical (a nod towards Spamalot, a musical rendition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail), and The Lion King (musical). The show features the cat and felicidal mouse doing what they do best, but all in song. The audience is enthralled by the performance and give it a standing ovation. Julianna, the director comes out on stage, accompanied by Principal Skinner, to acknowledge the cheers. Skinner reveals that Julianna used to be a student of Springfield Elementary and, while acknowledging all her accomplishments, says that she wasn’t very good in math because of her gender. Everyone is shocked at the sexist remark. Skinner’s attempts to defend himself just worsen the situation, and he ends being kicked in the crotch by the puppeteer-controlled Itchy and Scratchy characters.
The next day, the teachers of Springfield Elementary and other ladies stage a protest outside the school against Skinner’s remark, much to the displeasure of Superintendent Chalmers. Skinner assures him that he will take care of it and holds a conference in the school’s auditorium, inviting all the protesting ladies to attend. There, he tries to pacify them by wearing a skirt and saying that men and women are equal but not identical. Nothing he says has a good effect on the ladies, so finally he has a nervous breakdown onstage. Chalmers comes out and introduces them to their new principal—lady principal, that is. As her first act as principal, she separates the boys and girls into separate schools. The move is met with mixed reactions.
The next day, Otto drops off the girls at their school, and then drives a few feet ahead and releases the boys from their cage in the bus, so they can attend their school. Lisa seems to feel right at home in the girl-friendly school, with the fountains, paintings, pink paint and all. She attends math class, which will be taught by the new principal herself. However, instead of usual number-crunching, she starts speaking about the philosophy and magic in math. While the other girls seem to go for it, Lisa asks whether they will get down to doing problems, to which the principal replies that problems are how boys look at math. Disillusioned by this “pro-female” (and illogical) bias toward one of her favorite subjects, Lisa climbs over the wall into the boys’ school compound, which now comes complete with stray wolves, burnt out vehicles, garbage, and excessive graffiti. She peeps into one of the classrooms and sees a math class in session, where actual, accurate math is being taught exactly how she likes it. She is caught by Skinner, now an assistant to Groundskeeper Willie and told to leave.
After a chat with Marge, she decides to disguise herself as a boy, named “Jake Boyman” (though the boys nickname her “Toilet”) and attend the boys’ school. During the math class, she is beaten by Martin but she feels happy to have learned something. Unfortunately, being with the boys means having to act like one. She inadvertently gets into a fight with Nelson and, as much as she tries to use her intelligence to escape her situation, she gets beaten up.
When Bart returns home that day, happy to have seen a fight, he is shocked to see Lisa, still dressed as Jake, sitting on her bed, crying quietly. Bart asks her whether she told their mother about this. Lisa answers that if she does tell, she will not be allowed to go to the boys' school again. Bart feels sorry for her and he tells her that he will teach her to act like a boy.
Thanks to Bart’s help, she starts acting more like a boy, including Bart forcing her to beat up poor Ralph Wiggum. However, she does well in math class. Finally, at an award ceremony, she is given an award for her outstanding performance in math. She then reveals herself to the whole school, and she explains why she had to disguise herself. Bart gets up and tells everyone that she did well only because she was acting like a boy. Angry at hearing this, she throws her award at Bart, but ends up hitting Ralph. Shocked at how “boy-like” she has become, she apologizes to Ralph. She later decides to uphold some male traditions and promptly beats up Martin. In the end, it is assumed that Springfield Elementary becomes integrated again and Principal Skinner is given his job back.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title is a play on the title of the song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” by Cyndi Lauper.
- The music and the scenes depicting the crime world (boy's playground) is a parody of Scarface.
- The Broadway Version of The Lion King is completely parodied by the Itchy and Scratchy Musical, Stab-a-Lot, even to the point that the musical uses puppets (and puppeteers) that are exactly like the Timon puppet used in said musical. Its title is a parody of Spamalot, which Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria was a cast member of. The song “It’s Symbiotic” is a parody of the song “I Don't Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar. And the song "The Circle of Knife" is a parody on "Circle of Life" in The Lion King. The name of the director, Julianna, is an obvious reference to Julie Taymor, the director of the actual Broadway musical, known for her stunning visuals and use of puppetry. Homer says that the book was written by Tom Stoppard, a playwright famous for absurdism, abstract thought and philosophy.
- The song that Otto plays after he lets the girls off is “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest.
- The song that Martin, "The Best Flautist", plays and continues playing at the end credits is "Thick as a Brick" by Jethro Tull.
- The episode’s basic storyline is similar to William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
- The music that plays in scenes featuring the boys’ playground is very reminiscent of the theme from Stanley Kubrick’s film version of A Clockwork Orange, Beethoviana. Both A Clockwork Orange and the episode feature somewhat apocalyptic, violent settings.
- In the girls’ section of the elementary school, paintings by Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe hang on the walls, joined in humorous juxtaposition by a Cathy cartoon, implying an equivalent position in the female-artist pantheon for Cathy Guisewite.
- In the Springfield Theater District there is a musical entitled $$$ starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. This is probably a parody of The Producers, which broke various theater box office records during its run on Broadway.
- One Guy Named Moe: Parody of a Broadway comedy from the late 80s called Five Guys Named Moe.
- The song played during a montage of Lisa doing well in the boy's school is The Waitresses’ I Know What Boys Like.
- Seymour Skinner's remark that men are better than women at math and science is a reference to Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard University.
- Lisa disguising herself as a boy is a reference to the films Yentl; when Lisa reveals her identity, Dolph exclaims, "We've been Yentl'd!"
- Lisa's declaration on how difficult being male can be at the end is reminiscent of the book Self-Made Man.
- When Lisa dreams that several numbers talk to her and a number 27 comically screams "27!" may be a reference to the recurring joke of having a 27 in unusual places used by musical comedian Weird Al Yankovic in his music videos and album covers.
- Homer made reference to Wang Chung's song, Everybody Have Fun Tonight, as he asked Marge if she wants to "Wang Chung tonight".
[edit] Awards
This episode was nominated for a WGA award in 2007.
[edit] See also
