On April 19, 1987, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie made their debut during a short on The Tracey Ullman Show. Two years later, Fox gave them their own program. In the three decades since, The Simpsons has become an American institution. To celebrate the 30th birthday of the greatest set of television characters of all time, let’s look back at the stories behind the 100 best Simpsons episodes.
To compile this list, I sought feedback from both hardcore Simpsons fans and former members of the show’s creative staff. Still, it was an inherently subjective undertaking. "You could choose every other episode from the first 200 episodes for your top 100 and you wouldn’t be too far off," one Simpsons writer told me. I don’t claim to be a scientician, but I tried to be meticulous. So crack open a Duff and enjoy.
Below you’ll find numbers 10 to 1 of our top-100 ranking. Click here for the entire list.
10. "Stark Raving Dad"
Season 3, Episode 1
Airdate: September 19, 1991
Written by: Al Jean and Mike Reiss
When the most famous person on earth asks to be on your show, you pull out all the stops. That’s what the staff of The Simpsons did for a certain music legend. "Michael Jackson once called [James L. Brooks] and said he wanted to do the show and even write a hit song for Bart," Al Jean told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012. "Stark Raving Dad" manages to showcase the King of Pop’s talents, poke fun of his persona, and humanize him in a way that nothing has before or since. It’s one of the most improbably funny TV episodes ever.
The story begins not with MJ, but rather with Homer, who one morning is distressed to find that Bart’s red hat has turned his shirts pink in the wash. "Everybody wears white shirts," Homer whines. "I’m not popular enough to be different." The involuntary wardrobe change results in Mr. Burns labeling Homer a "freethinking anarchist." Soon Homer is committed to the New Bedlam Rest Home for the Emotionally Interesting, where he meets a towering white guy who claims to be (and sounds exactly like) Michael Jackson. "If you ever find your marbles," Homer tells his new friend before being released, "come visit us." As it turns out, the man is there voluntarily. "Back in 1979," he says, "I got real depressed when my Off the Wall album just got one lousy Grammy nomination."
Before Homer brings his new friend home to his family, Bart spreads the rumor that Michael Jackson is coming to Springfield. The town is angry to find out that the visitor, as Bart puts it, is just a mental patient. "You’d be amazed how often I hear that," replies the man. He then helps Bart write a song for Lisa, who felt neglected by her brother on her birthday. "Happy Birthday, Lisa" is by far the sweetest, catchiest song in the history of the show. Hell, it was written by Michael Jackson! Although he didn’t actually sing it. Soundalike Kipp Lennon did. Jackson, who requested to be billed as John Jay Smith in the credits, pulled the switch to prank his brothers.
In the episode’s final moments, the man reveals his true identity. His name is Leon Kompowsky, a New Jersey bricklayer who one day realized he could talk and sing just like Michael Jackson. "All of a sudden, everyone was smiling at me," he says, "and I was only doing good on this earth. So I kept on doing it. To make a tired point, which one of us is truly crazy?"
There are conflicting reports about his exact role in the process, but Jackson contributed to making Bart’s hit single, "Do the Bartman." Leon was supposed to return to The Simpsons in a sequel to "Stark Raving Dad" written by Conan O’Brien, but proposed guest star Prince rejected the script.
9. "Bart Sells His Soul"
Season 7, Episode 4
Airdate: October 8, 1995
Written by: Greg Daniels
Scarier than any of the "Treehouse of Horror" specials, this perfect bit of horror comedy delves into Bart’s existential crisis. Greg Daniels blames the boredom of boarding school for the idea. One night an abrasive classmate questions the existence of the human soul. To mess with him, Daniels takes out a piece of paper and wrote, "I sell my soul to Greg Daniels for the price of 50 cents." The teen agrees to the terms, goes up to his room, then returns spooked. "I want my my soul back," he tells Daniels, who recalled driving up the resale price before realizing that making money off a soul was a little too Satan-like to stomach.
Bart is often forced to reckon with the havoc that he wreaks, but never as agonizingly as he does here. When Milhouse tells on Bart for swapping the week’s church hymn with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," Reverend Lovejoy makes them clean the organ pipes. After Milhouse says that he snitched because he doesn’t "want hungry birds pecking [his] soul forever," Bart claims that there’s no such thing as a soul and sells his to Milhouse for $5.
When Lisa warns Bart that his soul is "the symbol of everything fine inside us," he begins to realize that his shit-stirring spirit has been crushed. Not even Itchy & Scratchy makes him laugh anymore. His low point comes when in a nightmare he sees his classmates playing with their souls. Then they all hop in boats and everyone has a partner to help row except Bart, who notices his soul paddling for Milhouse. Daniels loves that scene, which might be the most painful in Simpsons history. Lisa eventually buys Bart’s soul back, but not before finally doing some serious introspection.
"Bart Sells His Soul" would be high on the list anyway, but an A-plus subplot gives it a boost. Moe turns his bar into the family-friendly Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag, a chain-style restaurant with "a whole lotta crazy crap on the walls." The experiment doesn’t last.
8. "Homer at the Bat"
Season 3, Episode 17
Airdate: February 20, 1992
Written by: John Swartzwelder
"Homer at the Bat," as much as a half-hour cartoon could be, was an event. Nine major league All-Stars appear in the episode, which was the first installment of The Simpsons to beat The Cosby Show in the ratings. But this is more than merely a benchmark. It’s an extravaganza that John Swartzwelder, a member of the writers’ wing of the Simpsons Hall of Fame, stuffed full of surreal moments and obscure references.
After using a magic bat (like in The Natural) to lead the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team to the city championship against Shelbyville, Mr. Burns bets the owner of the rival plant $1 million on the game’s outcome. To ensure a victory, the malevolent billionaire asks Mr. Smithers to enlist a bunch of long-dead ringers such as Cap Anson and Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown. (Old-timey Americana is a Swartzwelder trademark.) Burns’s toadie settles on recruiting a crew of current players.
The show uses its nine guests in uniquely Simpsonian ways. At Moe’s, Wade Boggs argues with Barney about which of England’s prime ministers was the best. Ozzie Smith gets lost in the Springfield Mystery Spot. Ken Griffey Jr. drinks nerve tonic and his head swells grotesquely. Depressed that he’s been supplanted by pro athletes, Homer finally gets his shot. With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth inning and a left-hander on the mound, Homer, a righty, pinch hits for Darryl Strawberry. "It’s called playing the percentages," says Burns, the manager.
The first pitch Homer sees hits him in the head, plating the winning run and knocking him out cold. A new cut of Terry Cashman’s "Talkin’ Baseball," with the names of the players in the episode replacing the originals, plays over the end credits. (Growing up, I didn’t know that the original version even existed.) Maybe more than any other, the episode brings on nostalgia in Simpsons fans.
"Even though it’s rooted in a very specific era of baseball, there’s something about it that is very timeless," said journalist Erik Malinowski, who for Deadspin wrote the definitive account of the making of "Homer at the Bat." "Anyone who’s played any sport at any level have all had an experience like [Homer’s]. We’ve all had to overcome people that are better than us."
7. "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge"
Season 2, Episode 9
Airdate: December 20, 1990
Written by: John Swartzwelder
It’s hard to imagine that a show big enough to have its own theme park attraction ever could’ve been considered edgy. But back in the early ’90s, The Simpsons was viewed as transgressive. Some considered a cartoon that starred an aggressively lazy oaf and his authority-defying son to be threatening. With "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge," the series took aim at the hypocritical backlash often directed at controversial pop culture phenomena.
As Homer builds a spice rack in the basement, Maggie sneaks up on him and hits his head with a mallet. While wondering what gave her the idea to bop her daddy on the head, Marge notices the baby watching an episode of ultraviolent show-within-a-show Itchy & Scratchy. Right after the mouse stabs the cat, Maggie swings a pencil in the direction of Homer. Horrified, Marge bans the cartoon in the house and writes Itchy & Scratchy International a letter imploring the studio to tone down its program’s "psychotic violence." Sleazy CEO Roger Meyers Jr., who’s voiced by character actor Alex Rocco, replies with a note saying, among other things, "Our research shows that one person cannot make a difference, no matter how big a screwball she is."
Marge responds by founding Springfieldians for Non-Violence, Understanding and Helping. SNUH leads protests against Itchy & Scratchy, which lampoons Marge on the show by turning her into a squirrel that the cat and mouse bash with baseball bats. But the program is besieged by angry letters. At that point, Myers calls the screwball for ideas on how to make the cartoon less violent. With Marge’s help, the show’s hacky writers create an episode in which Itchy and Scratchy share a pitcher of lemonade. Naturally, Springfield’s kids hate it and stage a protest of their own by turning off their TVs and playing outside.
The next day, Helen Lovejoy and Maude Flanders show up with hopes that Marge’s group will join in a protest of Michelangelo’s David, which is touring the United States. "It graphically portrays parts of the human body," Helen says, "which, practical as they may be, are evil." Marge realizes she’s painted herself into a corner. During an interview on news program Smartline, on which she’d appeared earlier in the episode, Marge is called out for her selective censorship concerns. "I guess one person can make a difference," she says, "but most of the time they probably shouldn’t."
Marge and Homer then go see what the latter refers to as Michelangelo’s "Dave." After his wife expresses disappointment that the kids are at home watching "a cat and mouse disembowel each other," Homer laughs and says that they’ll soon be forced to see it as part of a school field trip.
6. "Radio Bart"
Season 3, Episode 13
Airdate: January 9, 1992
Written by: Jon Vitti
"Radio Bart" has a terrifically silly premise: After a crappy birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s stand-in Wall E. Weasel’s, Bart discovers that the gift Homer gives him isn’t so lame after all. It’s called the Superstar Celebrity Microphone and it allows Bart to pipe his voice into any nearby AM radio. He uses the gadget to pull pranks on just about everyone in his life. (He tells Rod and Todd Flanders that he’s God.)
"Tina Fey did an interview about writing 30 Rock in which she said she wanted it to be like The Simpsons in that she wanted to be smart, but she also wanted to maintain the freedom to be really stupid when she felt like it," writer Jon Vitti said. "It was such a happy thing that someone that great watched what we did closely enough to see that, and liked it enough to have it inform her thinking about that great show. And she understood us perfectly."
Bart soon lowers a radio down the well, calls out for help through his mic, and, when the town mobilizes, claims that he’s a 10-year-old named Timmy O’Toole. As the media swarms and no one is able to save poor Timmy, Bart keeps up the ruse. Krusty is so moved that he enlists guest star Sting to record a "We Are the World"–like tribute song called "We’re Sending Our Love Down the Well." (Krusty has a solo.) "This isn’t about show business," Sting says. "This is about some kid down a hole … or something." Said Vitti: "Krusty is doing typical celebrity posturing in this story, but it felt more fun to make Sting terribly sincere."
Lisa eventually catches on to Bart’s scheme. When he scoffs at the prospect of the police catching him, she reminds her brother that he put a "Property of Bart Simpson" label on his radio. Then, while attempting to retrieve it in the middle of the night, he falls down the well. When the town finds out it has a real Baby Jessica situation on its hands, its citizens aren’t sympathetic. But even after learning that Bart was behind Timmy O’Toole, everyone — including Sting — joins together to dig Bart out. "You wanted to casually create complicated logical mistakes — just show Sting down in the pit with a shovel without comment," Vitti said, "and let the viewers realize, Wait, that’s stupid, the celebrities don’t do that part of it."
It’s a beautifully silly ending. "We never wanted to obligate ourselves to be smart all the time," Vitti said, "if for no other reason than we weren’t smart enough to be smart all the time."
5. "Homer the Heretic"
Season 4, Episode 3
Airdate: October 8, 1992
Written by: George Meyer
Homer Simpson’s decision to give up religion is less a thoughtfully considered choice than it is a rejection of tedious fearmongering. "I’m not a bad guy!" he says when God visits him in a mid-episode dream. "I work hard and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I’m going to hell?" In America, his view is not uncommon.
George Meyer, one of the greatest sitcom writers in the history of the format, was the perfect person to script "Homer the Heretic." In David Owen’s excellent New Yorker profile from 2000, Meyer talked about his issues with his Catholic upbringing. "The main thing was that there was no sense of proportion," he said. "I would chew a piece of gum at school, and the nun would say, ‘Jesus is very angry with you about that.’"
It’s only natural that Meyer has Homer decide to stop attending church with his family every week. He enjoys his free Sundays, watching football and staying in bed like, as he says, "a big toasty cinnamon bun." Pleas by Marge, Reverend Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, and God himself (in a dream) do nothing to sway Homer. But in the climactic scene, after Homer falls asleep and the cigar he’s smoking causes the house to go up in flames, he’s saved by none other than his pious neighbor Ned, who along with a group of volunteer firefighters comes to the rescue. In his kitchen afterward, Homer kneels and tries to repent. That leads to this:
Ned: Homer, God didn’t set your house on fire.
Reverend Lovejoy: No, but He was working in the hearts of your friends and neighbors when they came to your aid, be they Christian [Ned], Jew [Krusty], or miscellaneous [Apu].
Apu: Hindu! There are 700 million of us.
Reverend Lovejoy: Aw, that’s super.
In his article, Owen cites this exchange as an example of why The Simpsons was smart not to use a laugh track. Lovejoy’s last line, he wrote, "would have been too delicate to float above superimposed peals of laughter."
The next Sunday Homer returns to church, where he’s seen snoring. (He visits heaven in his dream, again talking to God and this time also seeing Ben Franklin and Jimi Hendrix play air hockey.) In classic Simpsons fashion, he learns his lesson. Barely. His faith is still intact, even if Sunday-morning services can’t keep him awake.
4. "Marge vs. the Monorail"
Season 4, Episode 12
Airdate: January 14, 1993
Written by: Conan O’Brien
The Simpsons has long been celebrated as the first animated series to be truly grounded in reality. But it’s still a cartoon, and thus not bound by the same rules as a live-action show. "If you had a strange idea for something in Mr. Burns’s basement, or a monorail system snaking through the town of Springfield," former Simpsons writer and current late-night host Conan O’Brien told Vanity Fair in 2007, "it could happen." And it did.
Take, for example, O’Brien’s "Marge vs. the Monorail." Without animation, O’Brien’s masterpiece probably would’ve been impossible to pull off. After a Flintstones parody intro, the Music Man–inspired musical begins with the Environmental Protection Agency forcing Mr. Burns to pay a $3 million fine to Springfield. At the meeting held to decide how to spend the money, a man in a bowtie named Lyle Lanley — who’s voiced by Phil Hartman — shows up and proposes building a monorail. Over the objections of Marge, who wants Main Street fixed, Lanley uses a song to convince the town to go for the newfangled transportation system.
While Homer is learning to be a monorail conductor, Marge learns that Lanley is a grifter who’s ripped off several other towns. By then it’s too late to stop the first monorail ride. When the brakes fail, Homer uses the "M" on the monorail sign to create an anchor, which wraps around a giant doughnut sign and stops the train.
"Well, my work is done here," guest star Leonard Nimoy says. When Barney replies, "You didn’t do anything," Nimoy responds, "Didn’t I?" Then he beams out. Something like that normally would’ve been too fantastical for The Simpsons, but an exception was made for Spock.
3. "Mr. Plow"
Season 4, Episode 9
Airdate: November 19, 1992
Written by: Jon Vitti
"Mr. Plow" was the kind of idea that Jon Vitti loved. "What often worked best for me was to get the weirdest story I could and write it more realistically than you’d think," he said. The writer applied that approach to a madcap episode in which Homer and Barney each start a snow-removal business and become bitter rivals.
After Homer totals both family cars in a snow storm, the Simpsons attend the Springfield Auto Show, where a pushy salesman sells Homer a $20,000 truck equipped with a plow. (The family also meets ’60s Batman star Adam West, with whom the kids aren’t impressed.) The investment doesn’t start paying off until Homer films a catchy TV commercial. Vitti wrote the Mr. Plow jingle lyrics — "Call Mr. Plow / That’s my name / That name again is Mr. Plow." — only as a placeholder. "But," he said, "my version was so terrible people thought it was funny and left it in."
Homer soon has bunches of customers. Mayor Quimby even gives him the key to the city. And Marge finds his Mr. Plow jacket sexy. In awe of Homer’s accomplishments, Barney tells his friend that he wishes he were a hero, too. Homer tells him he just needs to be the best damn Barney he can be. The sloppy drunk, who’d been dressing up in a giant diaper for his job at baby store, buys a truck and dubs himself the Plow King. He takes aim at Homer, even hiring Linda Ronstadt to record a disparaging jingle. "Mr. Plow is a loser and I think he is a boozer," go the lyrics, which Jeff Martin wrote. "So you better make that call to the Plow King." (Vitti attended Ronstadt’s recording session in San Francisco. "Standing at the next microphone and hearing that voice live was my favorite single experience as a Simpsons writer," he said.)
Whether he knows it or not, Barney’s resentment of Homer is deep-seated. Through a flashback to high school, the audience finds out that the latter introduced the former to booze, and not vice versa. The quick scene is hilarious. It’s also profoundly sad. "John Swartzwelder said a lot of smart things about The Simpsons," Vitti said, "and one of my favorites was, ‘The Simpsons is not a comedy, The Simpsons is a drama done by stupid people.’"
With Barney cutting into his profits, Homer commissions a new avant-garde TV ad. It has no effect on business. So during a blizzard, he anonymously calls Barney and tells him his driveway atop Widow’s Peak needs plowing. When an avalanche buries his rival, Homer feels guilty and drives up the mountain to save him. The old pals reconcile, vowing to become partners. "When two best friends work together," Homer says, "not even God himself can stop them." God then surreally chimes in with "Oh, no?" and brings Springfield warm weather, which melts the snow and ruins both plow careers.
"You almost always wanted the peril to be real," Vitti said. "But then someone would come up with something funny enough that you would have to bend the rules."
2. "Lisa’s Substitute"
Season 2, Episode 19
Airdate: April 25, 1991
Written by: Jon Vitti
By late in the second season of The Simpsons, Vitti recalled, the show’s creative staff had started to realize just how many layers of comedy it could jam into an episode. So when executive producer James L. Brooks came in with the idea of Lisa falling for her Dustin Hoffman–voiced substitute teacher, it made Vitti nervous.
"There’s an insurance in doing jokes," said Vitti, who got the assignment. "You can write 40 jokes, and, if 15 of them fail, there are still 25 jokes people can like. But if you invest completely in your story and people don’t like it, you’ve probably written the worst Simpsons episode ever." Still, even knowing that he’d be writing for an Oscar winner (who’s credited as Sam Etic), Vitti wanted to keep "Lisa’s Substitute" as small as possible. That wasn’t easy. First, Vitti’s script needed to be chopped down to broadcast length.
"John Swartzwelder happily volunteered," Vitti remembered. "[He said], ‘I’ll get some time out of it,’ and started ripping pages out of the script and throwing them on the floor. The fact that he was immune to sentiment was part of what made Swartzwelder our best writer, but it was still pretty disheartening to see the best writer react that way to your script."
The edit helped lead to an impeccable episode. It begins with Miss Hoover announcing that she has Lyme disease. Soon Mr. Bergstrom arrives dressed like an 1830 Texas cowboy. When he asks the class to name the three things wrong with his costume, Lisa raises her hand and points out the historical inaccuracies. Despite being wrong about Jewish cowboys not existing — "There were a few Jewish cowboys," the mensch of a substitute says, "big guys who were great shots and spent money freely" — Mr. Bergstrom accepts the answers and gives her his hat as a prize. Lisa is immediately smitten by the engaging young teacher, who reads the class Charlotte’s Web and encourages the students to show off their talents.
At home, Lisa gushes about Mr. Bergstrom. When Marge tells her daughter that it sounds like the way she feels about Homer, Lisa scoffs. Back at school, Bart is making a spectacle out of himself while running for class president. "Oh, you’ll never go broke appealing to the lowest common denominator," Lisa says. Mr. Bergstrom then assures an embarrassed Lisa that she’ll miss her brother’s antics later, "when your life takes you places the rest of us have only heard about."
"Places where my intelligence will be an asset and not a liability?" she asks.
"Yes," Mr. Bergstrom responds. "There is such a place."
For Lisa, whose gifts are never appreciated enough, it’s a rare moment of validation. The bond between the two characters was forged in a New York studio: Yeardley Smith and Hoffman recorded their parts together. "Once we did that," Brooks told USA Today in 2012, "it put a priority on the way we work with our actors, that we’re all in the same room at the same time, whenever possible." The connection of Lisa and Mr. Bergstrom can be seen in their expressions. For that, Vitti credited director Rich Moore. "Rich’s calling card was the perfection of his small touches," Vitti said of Moore, who’s gone on to helm Wreck-It-Ralph and Zootopia. "The facial acting in his episodes was always the best."
While visiting the Springfield Museum of Natural History with Lisa and her father, Mr. Bergstrom tells Homer that his star pupil lacks a strong male role model. Homer doesn’t take it well. Sensing Lisa’s disappointment, Marge suggests having Mr. Bergstrom over for dinner. Before Lisa can invite him, however, Miss Hoover returns to school. Lisa then tracks down Mr. Bergstrom at the train station.
Brooks suggested the ensuing exchange, which remains the most emotional scene in Simpsons history. After telling Lisa that he’s needed elsewhere, Mr. Bergstrom says, "Whenever you feel like you’re alone, and there’s nobody you can rely on, this is all you need to know." Then he hands her a note. It reads: "You are Lisa Simpson."
At the dinner table that night, a mopey Lisa yells at her father for not understanding her sadness. She even calls him a baboon. "Did you hear that, Marge?" Homer responds. "She called me a baboon. The stupidest, ugliest, smelliest ape of them all." At the urging of his wife, Homer futily attempts to console Lisa. "At least I’m good at … monkey work," he says. "You know? Monkey?" Then he starts making monkey noises. Finally, Lisa starts laughing and apologizes for insulting him.
Afterward, when Marge asks how he smoothed things over, Homer cuts her off. "Let’s just go to bed," he says. "I’m on the biggest roll of my life." The parenting clinic that Homer puts on proves what Simpsons fans have always known: Even the stupidest, ugliest, smelliest ape of them all can be a good father.
1. "Last Exit to Springfield"
Season 4, Episode 17
Airdate: March 11, 1993
Written by: Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky
Homer Simpson represents the supremely disempowered employee in all of us. But sometimes a man like Homer must take a stand.
When it comes to picking the best Simpsons episode, there is no consensus. But to me, the show peaked with "Last Exit to Springfield." It’s a perfectly baked layer cake of pop culture references, absurd jokes, middle-class angst, and family drama.
The episode, which Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky wrote off of an idea conceived by then-showrunner Mike Reiss, kicks off with Bart and Homer watching the latest McBain movie. When Bart comments on the evilness of the action flick’s villain, Homer says, "It’s just a movie, son. There’s nobody that evil in real life." The camera then cuts to a cackling Mr. Burns, who has decided that his employees’ union contract is too bloated.
We soon meet dentist Dr. Wolfe, who scares Ralph Wiggum into brushing by showing him The Big Book of British Smiles. After examining Lisa’s teeth, the doctor tells her that she needs braces. "Oh, no," she says. "I’ll be socially unpopular. More so." When Marge breaks the news to Homer, he’s not worried. After all, the union won a dental plan in the strike of ’88. (While his coworkers were demanding equitable treatment, he was at the lunch truck yelling, "Where’s my burrito?")
At the next gathering of the Local 643 (the International Brotherhood of Jazz Dancers, Pastry Chefs, and Nuclear Technicians), Carl tells the members that the new contract is basically unchanged except that the dental plan has been cut in exchange for free beer at meetings. "So long, dental plan!" Lenny says as he pours himself a cold one. Then comes an all-time great Simpsons moment: the slow calibration of Homer’s brain. For half a minute, Lenny’s and Marge’s voices echo in his head. After hearing "dental plan" and "Lisa needs braces" enough times, he has a necessary epiphany. "If we give up our dental plan," he says, "I’ll have to pay for Lisa’s braces!"
His dismay reminds me of something that John Swartzwelder once told fellow Simpsons writer Ron Hauge about Homer: "He loves his food. He loves his sex. He’s completely stupid. And he will defend his family to the death." Homer may be an idiot, but his wife and kids are his world. Even if it doesn’t always seem that way, he’s driven to do right by them.
Homer quickly persuades his brethren to rip up the contract. They name him union president, and he takes on Mr. Burns. With Homer facing a crisis, the episode pops with memorable sequences. While basking in the glory of his new position, Homer imagines himself as a Don Fanucci–esque mob boss. And while getting her inexpensive, primitive braces put on, Lisa drifts off into a nitrous-induced Yellow Submarine–like dream.
Meanwhile, Mr. Burns attempts to break Homer. (During negotiations at his mansion, Burns shows Homer his room with a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters working on the greatest novel known to man.) Intimidation doesn’t work, mostly because Homer doesn’t understand his boss’s tactics. Homer then calls a strike. On the picket line, Lisa even belts out a supportive folk anthem. Burns eventually turns off the town’s power, but when he hears his aggrieved workers united in song, he gives in to Homer’s demand on the condition that he resign as union president. He agrees and then spins around on the floor like Curly from The Three Stooges. "Smithers," Burns says, "I’m beginning to think that Homer Simpson was not the brilliant tactician I thought he was." With dental covered again, Lisa gets fancy braces.
In America, an unremarkable schmo doesn’t usually stand a chance against a ruthless plutocrat. But every so often, the former turns the tables on the latter, says "Woo-hoo!," and becomes a hero.
An earlier version of this piece misquoted Homer; the correct line is "Where’s my burrito?"
Return to The Ringer’s 100 Best ‘Simpsons’ Episodes.
