Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade


image_caption= Bart and Lisa on the school bus to Capital City.
episode_no = 294
prod_code = DABF20
airdate = November 17, 2002
show runner = Al Jean
writer = Tim Long
director = Steven Dean Moore
blackboard = "Fish do not like coffee."
couch_gag = 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 = Tony Bennett
season = 14

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

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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 gets an A-, so 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.

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.
*When the Capital City Goofball points to the state flag, it is similar in appearance to the provincial flag of British Columbia.
*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 ceased publication in 1998.
*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", although by 'episode' he may simply be referring to the series of events rather than the actual TV episode.
*When Bart is listing mnemonics, one he uses is "Quiet nerds burp only near school," to remember the original four Canadian provinces. (Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.
*Another mnemonic Bart uses is for the Canadian Governors General, "Clowns love haircuts, so should Lee Marvin's valet" (Adrienne Clarkson, Roméo LeBlanc, Ray Hnatyshyn, Jeanne Sauvé, Edward Schreyer, Jules Léger, Roland Michener, and Georges Vanier)