Simpsons 5/18: "All About Lisa"

Cafe Society
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KABF13 Written by John Frink

A rather weak ending to the season, compared to some of the episodes of weeks past. When I first heard what the plot of this episode was, I was reminded immediately of Bart Gets Famous, but although there were some similarities, it was a unique story. Bart didn’t really care about his accidential fame and knew his career would end. Lisa was fame-hungry and paid for it. There were some entertaining lines, though (although The Onion already did an “Awardy Awards” joke), and the All About Eve spoof narrative was amusing (especially the commercial joke and Moe stealing everyone’s money). As an amateur coin collector, the subplot amused me somewhat, especially Homer’s line “Coin collecting is a lot like life- it stopped being fun a long time ago.” Enjoy The Simpsons Ride at Universal Orlando and Hollywood, and here’s to Season 20.

“Bart’s having girl trouble. You better go talk to him.”
“It’s clown trouble. That’s your responsibility.”
“I thought I was in charge of bedtime stories and pets dying.”
“Well, we’re adding clowns.”
“Fine, but you just bought yourself ear piercing and strange new feelings.”

“Cancel my 1:00, move my 1:00 to 2:00 and cancel that. Oh, go to my joke file and make all the Sophia Lorens into Lindsay Lohans.”
“So do a global change?”
“What am I, Al Gore? Just do it!”

The comic books Comic Book Guy offers refer to the real comic Superman vs. Muhammed Ali. (For those curious: Ali won. Damn alien planet red sun!)

And now, for the nerdily enclined (like me), here’s Uncle Homer’s Numismatist Corner:
-What the hell’s a numismatist? Someone who likes that “Numa Numa” guy? Oh, maybe it has something to do with coins. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. [Uncle Homer will no longer be writing these.]
-In good condition, a bicentennial quarter would fetch anywhere from $6-8.
-There’s no such thing as a Confederate half dime- the CSA did mint a few experimental coins, but since metals were rare, relied mostly on paper money.
-Known penny [or “cent,” to give the proper term] minting errors include the double-die errors of 1917 (the same year as the Kissing Lincoln error coin), 1936, 1955 (this one is worth a lot of money), 1969, 1970, 1984, and 1995.
-The $10 million paid for the Kissing Lincoln would set a record for coin prices at auction, the previous record being $7.5 million for a 1933 $20 gold coin. The most valuable modern penny is that 1955 double die, which goes for over $12,000 (and played an important role in the “Weird Al” Yankovic/That Guy Who Played Kramer and Hates Blacks vehicle UHF, though erroneously claimed to be from the Denver mint).
-If you’re actually reading these facts, you’re as lame as I am.
(Some info courtesy A Guide Book of United States Coins, 2009 Edition, published by Whitman Publishing, Atlanta, GA.)

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I’d say you’ve covered my thoughts there.

I agree that this was similar to Bart Gets Famous, but the differences were important: they both fell into the job, but Bart had always adored Krusty and resented seeing his dark side. Like Sideshow Bob, Lisa didn’t want the spotlight at first, but she came to like it and it did weird things to her. There were a couple of really dark notes for Lisa this season, actually, with lying and scheming and such, and she summed it up in Dial ‘N’ for Nerder: “Beneath my goody two-shoes lie some very dark socks.”

Nice to see Plopper again, by the way.

I’d said this before, but I think Season 19 was the best since 9 or 10. I think Dial ‘N’ for Nerder, The Debarted and Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind were the best entries.

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I think I finally hit the Simpsons wall. I watched 5 minutes of this crap, didn’t crack one smile, and turned back to the computer. Time to let go.

Joe

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“Him. Him. Him. Ham.”

He looked good in a tux.

I’m not remembering quotes, but the scene with Burns in the limo at the end was funny.

Lots of super Krusty quotes. “Stop stepping on my solo.”

I thought it was a funny episode. It’s been a pretty strong season.

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Hated this it was a rehash, this is why sitcoms died. There are thousands of good ideas that could be used for “The Simpsons,” yet the writers rehash old plots constantly. How many of Homer and Marge fight or Homer gets a new job are we gonna have?

Writers make damn good money (The strike aside which lumped non working writers in with working writers thus lowering their payscale), they ought to come up with better crap than this.

This is why reality TV took over, writers are keen to sit back recycle old ideas make a mint and not work. I know reality TV has writers but they use new angles on themes to make a go of it.

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Mmm… terrible.

I have one every coin, but I feel strangely empty. Ooh! There’s another coin! That should do it.

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This episode was also reminiscent of the Mensa-takes-over-Springfield episode. Lisa gets what she thinks she wants, finds that it is not making her happy, and is lectured by a wise elder as to the danger of following a dream or an enthusiasm too far. Yes, I’m equating Sideshow Mel and Stephen Hawking.

Come to think of it, the Buddhism episode followed this pattern too.

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Not a good episode. There have to be thousands of stories that don’t involve one of the Simpsons suddenly being a prodigy at something. Still funny though.

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Although, since it was a parody of All About Eve, I was expecting they’d use some variation on the most famous line from the movie (i.e., “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy evening.”)

It could be worse. You could’ve collected baseball cards (like I did).

Incidentally, I noticed the writers said upfront this storyline would be conveniently forgotten in future episodes. Apparently this was a pre-emptive strike against the more continuity-obsessed fans who, the next time there’s an ep about the Simpsons having money trouble, will shout at the screen, “But Bart has a coin worth TEN MILLION DOLLARS in his collection book!”

Speaking of broken continuity, I see that CBG is back in his shop with no mention of how he got back into business, what happened to the exercise studio run by Marge that took over his space, and what happened to the seemingly more popular comic book shop run by the character voiced by Jack Black. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Seriously? I have a whole box of them at home, and I still see them in my change from time to time.

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[off-topic]I’m a bit surprised they’d be worth so much since there are still quite a few left in circulation. If what mobo85 says is true, I should remember to save the next one I receive as change.[/off-topic]

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[NITPICK]“Bumpy night.” It’s a close variation on the standard expression “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”[/NITPICK]

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It depends on the condition- the book says most are worth $1, which is around how much other quarters of the same era are worth. Ones made out of silver (with S mint mark) are also worth more.