Brother's Little Helper
 |
| "Brother's Little Helper" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:Brothers Little Helper.jpg | |
| Episode no. | Season 11 |
| Directed by | Mark Kirkland |
| Written by | George Meyer |
| Original air date | October 3, 1999 |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | "Pork is not a verb" |
| Couch gag | The Simpsons are blank paint-by-numbers figures; Asian animators come in and color the family, but don’t detail their eyes. |
| Commentary | Mike Scully George Meyer Mark Kirkland Ian Maxtone-Graham Matt Selman Tim Long |
"Brother's Little Helper" is the second episode of the eleventh season of The Simpsons. It aired on October 3, 1999. The title refers to an early Rolling Stones song, titled "Mother's Little Helper", which is about stressed housewives abusing prescription drugs.
Plot
Principal Skinner introduces a fire safety skit to the students. When Ned Flanders catches on fire, the fire department tries to extinguish him, but it does not work because Bart is pulling a prank with the fire hose. Skinner has Homer and Marge come to the school. It is then when Bart is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Principal Skinner tells Marge and Homer that Bart must take a radical, untested new behavioural medicine called Focusyn, or else he will be expelled.
After several failed attempts by Homer (including naming off several celebrities who are on drugs, such as Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, sitcom actress Brett Butler, and actor/comedian Andy Dick and offering Bart taffy laced with several Focusyn pills sticking out), Marge convinces Bart to take the medication, and his behavior immediately improves. He begins paying attention in school and being respectful to his parents. However, side effects soon occur, as Bart becomes paranoid that Major League Baseball is spying on the town using satellites. The doctors recommend that Bart go off Focusyn, but he refuses. Before anyone can stop him, he swallows several handfuls of Focusyn and runs away.
Bart wanders onto an Army base and manages to steal a tank. He cuts a swath of destruction through the town, until he eventually stops at the school. There, he points the tank's cannon into the sky and shoots down a Major League Baseball satellite, proving his theory right. Mark McGwire appears, but instead of explaining the bizarre situation, he distracts the townspeople by asking “Do you want to know the terrifying truth, or do you want to see me hit some dingers?” (the latter choice being selected by everybody present); he accommodates them, and then runs off with the evidence under his cap. Marge takes Bart off Focusyn for good and puts him back on "hugs, fresh air, and good old-fashioned Ritalin".
Cultural references
- The fire safety skit slogan, "Learn, Baby, Learn", is a spoof of "Burn, Baby, Burn".
- Homer remarks that Bart has gone from Goofus to Gallant from Highlights Magazine.
- When on his rampage in the tank, Bart sings "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac.
- Man steals tank in San Diego and destroys over 35 cars: Shawn Nelson.
- One of Bart's classmates (Sherri) reads aloud the poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth.
- The book that Bart gives to Homer, Chicken Soup for the Loser, is a spoof of the book Chicken Soup for the Soul.
- On their date, Marge and Homer see the movie Showgirls.
- Bart's Ritalin song at the end is a parody of the theme song sung at the conclusion of the Popeye animated shorts.
- The Pharm Team building is modeled after Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York.
- The book that Bart is reading when Lisa enters in his bedroom, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Pre-Teens, is a spoof of the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" was eventually released, though no Pre-Teen edition was.
- Marge stands in front of Bart's tank, very similarly to the scene of Tiananmen Square.
- The title of the episode is a reference to Mother's Little Helper.
- Homer makes a distinction between "Ray J. funny or O. J. funny", a variation on the saying funny ha-ha or funny peculiar, although it may be deliberately ambiguous as to which is which.
- Principal Skinner angrily punching the man-sized doll is a reference to Albert Bandura's famous Bobo the Doll experiment.
- When Wiggum catches Bart in the tank, he says, "That's the end of your Looney Tune, Drugs Bunny!"
Note
This episode marks the last time that Maggie Roswell voices Maude Flanders before Maude's death in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly" (however Maude's voice fluctuates between Maggie Roswell and Marcia Mitzman-Gaven in the scene where she and Ned Flanders perform the play at Springfield Elementary's Fire Prevention Day).
External links
