Against the Groen(ing) 11.09.07: The Telltale Head - Episode 8
Posted by Cory Lynn Schibler on 11.09.2007
Lynch mobs aren't usually this nice.
Welcome yet again to Against the Groen(ing). I’m your host Cory Lynn Schibler. This is a week of great rejoicing as I found out that I am going to get to graduate in May! The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight and now I’m ready to write about the Simpsons. This week it’s the Telltale Head.
Original Air date: February 25, 1990 Production Code: 7G07
This episode was written by Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Sam Simon, and Matt Groening and directed by Rich Moore.
Principal Cast Homer: Dan Castellaneta Marge: Julie Kavner Bart: Nancy Cartwright Lisa: Yeardley Smith
Chalkboard: “I did not see Elvis”
Couch: the whole family squeezes in and Bart flies into the air. As the credits finishes rolling he falls in front of the TV.
Bart and Homer are walking along a dark street, with Homer telling Bart that he has screwed up before too, but that people are usually very forgiving. The two are then promptly chased by an angry fire-wielding mob. We find out that Bart is holding the statue head of Springfield founder Jebediah Springfield.
Bart appeals to the mob that he needs 23 minutes and 5 seconds to tell his story. See, cause that’s how much time is left in the episode.
We flashback to see the Simpson family preparing for church; this includes a pat down for young Bart. Marge can’t figure out why she has so much trouble getting the family to church.
In Sunday school, Bart and friends bombard the teacher with ridiculous questions about what types of things get into Heaven, and which things get left out. Meanwhile during Reverend Lovejoy’s sermon on gambling, “the 8th deadly sin,” Homer is intently listening to the football game that he bet on.
On the way home from church, Bart sees that Space Mutants 4 is showing in the local cinema. At home, Bart immediately swindles Homer into giving him $5 and he goes to the theatre to see the movie that his mom had forbidden him from seeing on the way home.
At the theatre, Bart runs into bullies Jimbo and Kearney who help him sneak into the theatre. After they are kicked out of the theatre, the boys go to the Kwik-e-mart, where the older boys swipe a bunch of stuff while Bart buys them Squishees.
The boys now, very contrary to character, are lying down cloud watching. Their characters are soon saved, as their clouds are very morbid. Cherry bomb, stabbing victim, school bus crash, and Bart sees the statue without its head. The older boys tell him that somebody would be really cool if they cut the statues head off.
After Homer tells him that doing anything you can to be popular is necessary, unless it involves murdering someone, Bart goes and saws the head off the statue.
The next day, Springfield goes BANANA! 10 points to those who get that reference. The town is in an uproar that the statue of their beloved founder, who either “killed the bear with his b-a-r-e hands” or “…the bear killed him.”
Bart takes off with the head to show off to the older kids his accomplishment, but they have decided that they want to beat the crap out of whoever did it. Meanwhile, Bart is hearing the voice of the statue telling him that he needs to do the right thing.
Back at home, Bart reveals to his family that he took the head off the statue because someone told him popularity was everything. After Homer admits that he is partially to blame, he decides to help Bart return the head.
This leads to Bart retelling the opening scene, which leads the mob to tell him to get on with it because “we know this part already.”
Bart appeals to the mob to spare him and the mob decides that they don’t feel like killing anymore. Bart replaces the head and Homer tells him to be thankful because most lynch mobs aren’t as nice as that one.
I apologize for the shortness of this column, but school is turning on the heat and so I have been very busy. Coming up next week, it’s Marge’s turn to be the focus as we visit Life on the Fast Lane. See ya then.
Here is an awesome video that is actually related to the Simpsons! Zack Kim playing the Simpsons theme on guitar. Enjoy!
The 411: This story is good because everyone can identify with doing things to make ourselves fit in better with people we see as popular or important. Bart is no different than any of us, in the same way that the Simpson family deep down is the same as we are. That’s why this show has continued for as long as it has. 7.0 out of 10.0.
