They Saved Lisa's Brain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"They Saved Lisa's Brain" is the twenty-second episode of The Simpsons' tenth season. The episode aired on May 9, 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
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 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. After being bullied out of their reserved gazebo at a park, they fear that Springfield's quality is down because of the city's stupidest residents having power over their civic institutions. The Mensa group goes to confront Mayor Quimby about the gazebo incident, until he escapes from the city by plane when he mistakenly thinks the group has evidence about 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. At first they efficiently implement their ideas for Springfield, which include banning green traffic lights and playing only classical music at the dog races, which elevates Springfield past East St. Louis on the list of America's 300 Most Livable Cities. However, they begin to fight over other ideas such as having theatres for shadow puppets, a broccoli juice program, and Comic Book Guy's plan to limit breeding to every 7 years.
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, and would have seriously injured Lisa but for the intervention of Dr. Stephen Hawking. The brilliant professor has shown up to see what the MENSA group is up to and makes it clear he's unimpressed. 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 by a boxing glove on a spring (which is concealed in Hawking's wheelchair).
In the episode's other storyline, Homer has erotic photos taken of himself to give to Marge as a gift. She enjoys them a lot, but gets distracted by the interior design Homer did in their basement, so he ends up not getting to have sex with her.
[edit] Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- This is the introduction to the character Lindsay Naegle. She was actually seen in earlier episodes such as "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" and "Girly Edition", however she had brown hair and was known as "The Network Executive Lady".
- Doctor Hibbert talks of moving back to Alabama, showing that Springfield is not in that state.
- Madeleine Albright is one of the judges at the contest, though she only appears in animation with no speech.
- Dr. Stephen Hawking's appearance became a point of controversy when Internet postings claimed that he did not actually record the lines attributed to him in the episode. The show's producers and Dr. Hawking then did interviews that confirmed his participation in the show.
[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 gatherings are often held in public parks. This can and does lead to the occasional conflict with others -- such as when Lenny and Carl refuse to give up the gazebo and Chief Wiggum takes their side in the dispute.
- 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 MS-DOS and the American children's book series Dick and Jane, where the phrases "See Spot. See Spot Run. Run, Spot, Run" were moulded.
- Lisa says that only one person in a million would find the C:/DOS T-shirt funny, which Professor Frink calls "The Dennis Miller" Ratio, making fun of the comedian's use of obscure facts and elaborate metaphors.
- Homer refers to Stephen Hawking as Larry Flynt, saying, "Larry Flynt is right! You guys stink!" Like Hawking, Flynt is confined to a wheelchair.
- Stephen Hawking speaks of his "failure to formulate a unified field theory" - Nikola Tesla 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), although he has formulated a partial theory.
- 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
- Principal Skinner notes that the town's trains are running on "metric time," while looking at an analog clock numbered 1-10.
- When the bottom 5 cities in the list of America's 300 Most Livable Cities are shown, Springfield (No. 299) is right below Dawson's Creek, NC (No. 298). Dawson's Creek was a teen drama on The WB network that was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina.
[edit] External links
- "They Saved Lisa's Brain" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "They Saved Lisa's Brain" at the Internet Movie Database
