Last night Adult Swim aired the KotH episode “No Bobby Left Behind”, originally aired 11-9-08. The plot was a shot at the No Child Left Behind Act and how the school tried to up their test results by putting the less-academic kids into a “special” class. *The Simpson *had a similar episode, “How The Test Was One”, that first aired on 3-1-09. To my surprise, it was not in fact a case of the ‘Simpsons did it first’. Perhaps more surprising was that it was *KotH *that beat them to the bunch, and landed it much better at that.
Couple questions and then thread can go any which direction…
One, was KotH, in fact, the first to use this NCLB premise or did someone else beat them to it? I can’t remember if SP, FG, or AD had used it or not. ETA: feel free to include any non-animated shows.
Two, what other notable plot lines, in a reverse of the meme, did The Simpsons notany which do first? South Park’s WoW episode was the only other I could think of airing before both The Simpsons’ and American Dad mmorpg episodes.
The Simpsons did have a long-ago episode (“Whacking Day,” Season Four) where below-average students - in fact, it’s some of the same kids - are hidden away for a similar reason: the superintendent is coming to the school and they could screw up the inspection. It’s not a lampooning of No Child Left Behind specifically, but really, the “How the Test Was Won” could be about any achievement test and doesn’t necessarily comment on NCLB, other than that funny line about “No Child Left Unbothered.” There were similar tests long before NCLB.
The Simpsons also took on assessment tests in “Separate Vocations,” an outstanding episode and one of their most biting. That’s more about those ridiculous career aptitide tests, though.
Oh yeah, I remember the IOWA test, among a couple others, but did the results of those test then have such a direct impact on the school’s funding prior to NCLB, enough so that teachers would result to such measures(at least satirically)?
Those are good examples, but I’m not sure if they are quite similar enough to pull the ‘first!’ credit from King Of The Hill in this case; okay, maybe half credit for “Whacking Day”.
Season 4 of The Wire had a storyline about NCLB, which predates both series’ episodes.
Nice one, maybe, I’m still way late to the party and haven’t seen any of The Wire yet.
There was an episode of Boston Public in 2003where a basketball player was thought to have been improperly recruited. The administration determined that he had been going to a NCLB-deficient school and, as such, was allowed to transfer.