For some reason, the Simpson’s episode of “Bart Sells His Soul” seems very weird to me. For those who can’t guess, this is the episode where Bart sells his soul to Millhouse. Oh, and Moe opens a family restaurant.
I just don’t get it. There’s something weird, I might even say wrong, about this episode. Does anyone else feel this, or am I just crazy?
Um…how’s about telling us what specifically bothers you?
Gjorp, are you familar with the works of Pablo Neruda?
It’s never bothered me for religious reasons, if that’s what you mean.
I think the dream sequence is pretty funny. (“Now it’s time to end this dream. Don’t forget the standard scream.”)
Well, Bart does sound like a girl when he’s asking God for his soul back.
I still say the Hubbards should have gone to Professor P.J. Cornucopia’s Fantastic Foodmagorium and Great American Steakery.
If anything, I thought that episode was particularly amusing, though I’m a stone-cold atheist.
“Way to breathe, no-breath.”
“You’re pretty uppity for someone who eats bugs all day.”
“Cover me Sarge, I’m going after Bart’s soul! AH-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH! If the Ayatollah can’t have it, no one can!”
“Okay, Milhouse’s grandmother lives on 182nd, and I’m on 3rd…”
“Alf’s back. In pog form.”
“As my breakfast burrito is rapidly congealing, I’ll be brief.”
“Please do not bang your head on the counter. It contains a rare Mary Worth in which she advises a friend to commit suicide. Thank you.”
No, I’m not talking anything religious here. I’m a stone-cold atheist myself. I suppose wrong was the wrong world. Maybe, it was off.
I’m sorry, I can’t describe what exactly it is about the episode. Clearly, no one else finds it a weird show.
Though, something that just came to me, it seems a bit like a dream to me. When I watched it, it felt as if I was dreaming the episode, not watching it (though I was not dreaming it, I got all of the above references).
Okay, as long as we’re analyzing vaguely-defined feelings of strangeness, can anyone tell me why I feel momentarily dizzy when I’m getting on or off a stalled escalator?
Bart IS a girl.
No, the weird one is the one where Bart is freaked out by his fiendish “clown bed” and Rod and Tod’s grandmother.
“Can’t sleep … clown will eat me … can’t sleep … clown will eat me…”
As much as I like this episode, I will admit it is pretty odd. After all, a story about one boy selling his soul to another boy for $5 is not a standard sitcom plot. Still, you have to give the Simpsons kudos for both the originality and execution of the story line.
Of course, if you really want to talk about weird vibes, check out the Simpsons ep about the skeleton of an angel being found at a construction site. I’d like to know where they came up with that idea.
Now that episode’s just plain crappy.
Ow, my freakin’ ears!
What’s weird about that episode is after Bart is done praying, Lisa shows up behind him with the piece of paper and says something like, “I heard you praying last night…” Last night? It was five seconds ago!
Except for one line: “Why??? Why was I programmed to feel pain???”
The one time I thought Bart was creepy as opposed to bratty was the teacher’s strike ep. Marge was right, there was something really unwholesome about the boy.
“Hello Mother, dear.”
There is something odd about that episode. I think it is the consistent air of menace, which alternates with absolute hilarity (think “In the Garden of Eden, by I. Ron Butterfly” as a hymn). The bit with the kids chanting about hell, the aforementioned dream, the bit where Bart is trying to get Ralph’s soul, then flees into the night (complete with slit-shaped irises), the way the street-cleaner guy laughs before he crashes into the subway, and tons of others are just plain creepy. It’s one of my favorite episodes, maybe because of this wierd creepiness that makes the jokes seem almost literally hysterical.
Isn’t this episode one of the ones that’s “non-canon”, so to speak? Like the Treehouse of Horror episodes, or some other ones, it’s more a Simpsons fantasy than an episode within normal continuity?
“Awww, geez…you got the stink-lines and everything!”