Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Bart Gets Famous
One of my least favourite feelings: the second you realize you've run a joke into the ground. I consider myself fairly witty amongst the people I know. Look, I'm not hysterical, but I get by. But when I tell a joke and then I realize there is some more juice in it, I may re-use it when appropriate. So if I discover if doesn't have any more give after trying it one more time, its pretty disheartening, not only because people don't laugh because I can feel it be bad and realize how not good the joke is IN REAL TIME. On the other side of things, there are also jokes that I've told that my parents parrot back at me. When my aunt was cutting very thin slivers of pie once, I recalled a MST3k joke: "Cut to the width of one electron." I didn't mean any insult but it made my aunt self-conscious. But mom loved it and repeats it frequently. Even more uncomfortably, I recently learned that it might because her family grew up poor that she cuts food thinly, making me feel worse about this undying joke. A joke getting out of your control in some capacity can be an ugly scene to be sure.
In this episode, Bart escapes a dull field trip to a box factory to wander around Channel 6 studios to see behind the scenes. There, after helping out Krusty, he's given a job as Krusty the Klown's assistant. Unfortunately, it turns out working in the business isn't as glamourous as it seems and Bart is ready to quit after constantly being mistreated and used. However, just as he's about to leave he's given a small role in a sketch. After accidentally destroying the set, he proclaims "I didn't do it." and his spontaneous comment is met with huge applause. Soon, Bart becomes a celebrity, gaining fame from his catchphrase. But Bart soon grows tired of limiting himself to a single catchphrase, despite the fact that this is all people wanted from him. Bart is ready to quit when Marge convinces Bart to keep going since despite the inanity of the bit, it makes people happy. But during the show, it soon become apparent that the Bart fad has passed.
I remembered this being a good episode but I was surprised how much I liked it this outing. Like, I think I would put it in the top ten episodes. Its extremely funny and also very insightful of the showbiz experience and, like many episodes, acts as a meta-commentary on the show itself. Bart's trajectory feels like a perfect encapsulation of a lot of people working on sitcoms. It would easy to put Bart in the shoes of similar child stars, most of which have catch phrases, but I also think it works very well for sitcom stars of the 80s and 90s. It starts with Bart paying his dues with a lot of thankless behind the scenes work and is eventually able to get an opportunity to shine (of course, Bart wasn't even planning to be a star but not every analogy is perfectly one to one). I've no doubt that actors like Bronson Pinchot worked very hard to get where they were and then when their catchphrase heavy characters came into being, they felt limited despite their success (which I think was the entire plot of Extras).
Bart makes it but soon finds a moment of true comedy has been echoed into meaninglessness, its context long forgotten. One nice touch is the second "I didn't do it" sketch not only feels painfully artless but the success of the original is the unexpected while with the second sketch it is all very clearly set up. Of course, by the time Bart comes around to do the terrible bit to the best of his ability to make people happy, people are all Barted out and his career is over. But despite a cynical view on the industry, it ends happily. As Marge points out, he'll always have a memory of when he meant a whole lot to people, capturing attention of the world and as Lisa points out he can have this without being shackled by his fame.
This echoes the show itself. We start with a visit to a mind-numbing business and possibly a job future. Bart wanders off the beaten path into showbusiness. But the glamour of showbusiness is eventually marred by the reality which is generally more mundane and often downright soulcrushing. Eventually, success is found in the Simpsons and then the success is dependent on catchphrases and merchandising. When the honeymoon phase is over, the show is finally free to evolve. Of course, the key difference is that the show has success beyond the fad phase and the Simpsons is still a catchphrase heavy show, a fact that the show calls itself on in the last gag.
So it is an insightful and cynical episode tackling the entertainment industry. But, in general, it is also just funny. These past three seasons have not had a loser amongst them aside from the clips show (and even that has its moments). But it has long segments that yield rich veins of comedy. I think the Simpsons is the show that should that you don't need to be off-the-wall with magic robots to be funny, as the absurdity of the mundane and denial of anything else is very funny. The show manages to make the box factory SO mundane and dull, that it can't not be funny. Something interesting failing to happen is in itself funny, such as Bart finding himself incapable of a whimsical fantasy sequence. Really, there's no slow spot in the whole episode and it manages to make a sequence of jokes tell the story in many places, using the increasing absurdity of Bart's shitty job and later Bart's fame trajectory to do much of the work. It feels like the momentum is built on scenes that are primarily gags that when taken together let you know what you need to know with only a couple scenes to act as exposition and even then, its more explaining Bart's emotional reactions to the story and his attempts to take control of his life.
Maybe the Simpsons finally hit the phase were its tepid laughs and the show is unable to stay fresh in this business *Honk* *Boing*. But its legend has far outlasted any chance the show will be forgotten. The episode also aged well in that catchphrases are strongly connected to current meme culture/language. Fact is, the whole episode aged well, thanks to no jokes that aged poorly/offensively. The nature of fame may change but there are always going to be aspects that are evergreen, such as the fleeting nature of fame and pop culture moments that burn out fast and hard. People might end up as some shmoe working at a box factory, but the fact that a person gets to have such sudden weird fame for a brief time is fascinating in itself.
Jokes I missed before:
I feel like there were specifics in jokes I didn't understand before but the structure of the joke, I did. Like I didn't know who Ross Perot or Oliver North were at the time but I got that the joke about Bart's biography was that the grown up political stuff had nothing to do with Bart's story.
Also, I think Selma and Patty starting a fire in their apartment was cut for syndication.
The Clue reference. Also, apparently Krusty killed someone? I mean, I guess I'm not surprised.
Other great jokes:
Where to begin. I could spend an entire afternoon on the box factory alone.
So much gold in this clip alone. The story of the box factory, "Oh, we don't assemble them here. That's done in Flint, Michigan.", "I don't know what kind of factory you're thinking of. We just make boxes here." "This is just like the other rooms", the tour of the office.
"A box damn you! A BOX!"
Bart surprisingly retain something from the box factory visit.
"A certain kind of soft drink has been found to be lethal. We won't tell you which one until after sports and the weather with funny, sunny storms."
Homer's great advice followed by the revelation that its what got him to where he is today. Then comforting Bart over this fact.
"He's dead." "Dead?" "Or sick or something I dunno."
"Repetitiveness is my job."
Other notes:
Seems like they should order more danishes if that's the one barrier between order and chaos at channel six.
The animators give Lisa a facial journey about regretting ragging on Bart's career as Homer talks about punching Urkel.
This isn't an emotion-focused episode (save for the feeling of disillusionment) but Marge gets to add an emotional dimension twice. Like, its far from making me well up with tears but her recontextualizing the situation to make Bart feel better works when she encourages him to keep trying because despite everything his work makes people happy and again when she points out there is a moment in time when you were treasured by everyone. That last one feels especially effective for someone is despite class clown popularity feels very much like he's often at odds with the world (albeit in a very different way to his sister).
One of my least favourite feelings: the second you realize you've run a joke into the ground. I consider myself fairly witty amongst the people I know. Look, I'm not hysterical, but I get by. But when I tell a joke and then I realize there is some more juice in it, I may re-use it when appropriate. So if I discover if doesn't have any more give after trying it one more time, its pretty disheartening, not only because people don't laugh because I can feel it be bad and realize how not good the joke is IN REAL TIME. On the other side of things, there are also jokes that I've told that my parents parrot back at me. When my aunt was cutting very thin slivers of pie once, I recalled a MST3k joke: "Cut to the width of one electron." I didn't mean any insult but it made my aunt self-conscious. But mom loved it and repeats it frequently. Even more uncomfortably, I recently learned that it might because her family grew up poor that she cuts food thinly, making me feel worse about this undying joke. A joke getting out of your control in some capacity can be an ugly scene to be sure.
In this episode, Bart escapes a dull field trip to a box factory to wander around Channel 6 studios to see behind the scenes. There, after helping out Krusty, he's given a job as Krusty the Klown's assistant. Unfortunately, it turns out working in the business isn't as glamourous as it seems and Bart is ready to quit after constantly being mistreated and used. However, just as he's about to leave he's given a small role in a sketch. After accidentally destroying the set, he proclaims "I didn't do it." and his spontaneous comment is met with huge applause. Soon, Bart becomes a celebrity, gaining fame from his catchphrase. But Bart soon grows tired of limiting himself to a single catchphrase, despite the fact that this is all people wanted from him. Bart is ready to quit when Marge convinces Bart to keep going since despite the inanity of the bit, it makes people happy. But during the show, it soon become apparent that the Bart fad has passed.
I remembered this being a good episode but I was surprised how much I liked it this outing. Like, I think I would put it in the top ten episodes. Its extremely funny and also very insightful of the showbiz experience and, like many episodes, acts as a meta-commentary on the show itself. Bart's trajectory feels like a perfect encapsulation of a lot of people working on sitcoms. It would easy to put Bart in the shoes of similar child stars, most of which have catch phrases, but I also think it works very well for sitcom stars of the 80s and 90s. It starts with Bart paying his dues with a lot of thankless behind the scenes work and is eventually able to get an opportunity to shine (of course, Bart wasn't even planning to be a star but not every analogy is perfectly one to one). I've no doubt that actors like Bronson Pinchot worked very hard to get where they were and then when their catchphrase heavy characters came into being, they felt limited despite their success (which I think was the entire plot of Extras).
Bart makes it but soon finds a moment of true comedy has been echoed into meaninglessness, its context long forgotten. One nice touch is the second "I didn't do it" sketch not only feels painfully artless but the success of the original is the unexpected while with the second sketch it is all very clearly set up. Of course, by the time Bart comes around to do the terrible bit to the best of his ability to make people happy, people are all Barted out and his career is over. But despite a cynical view on the industry, it ends happily. As Marge points out, he'll always have a memory of when he meant a whole lot to people, capturing attention of the world and as Lisa points out he can have this without being shackled by his fame.
This echoes the show itself. We start with a visit to a mind-numbing business and possibly a job future. Bart wanders off the beaten path into showbusiness. But the glamour of showbusiness is eventually marred by the reality which is generally more mundane and often downright soulcrushing. Eventually, success is found in the Simpsons and then the success is dependent on catchphrases and merchandising. When the honeymoon phase is over, the show is finally free to evolve. Of course, the key difference is that the show has success beyond the fad phase and the Simpsons is still a catchphrase heavy show, a fact that the show calls itself on in the last gag.
So it is an insightful and cynical episode tackling the entertainment industry. But, in general, it is also just funny. These past three seasons have not had a loser amongst them aside from the clips show (and even that has its moments). But it has long segments that yield rich veins of comedy. I think the Simpsons is the show that should that you don't need to be off-the-wall with magic robots to be funny, as the absurdity of the mundane and denial of anything else is very funny. The show manages to make the box factory SO mundane and dull, that it can't not be funny. Something interesting failing to happen is in itself funny, such as Bart finding himself incapable of a whimsical fantasy sequence. Really, there's no slow spot in the whole episode and it manages to make a sequence of jokes tell the story in many places, using the increasing absurdity of Bart's shitty job and later Bart's fame trajectory to do much of the work. It feels like the momentum is built on scenes that are primarily gags that when taken together let you know what you need to know with only a couple scenes to act as exposition and even then, its more explaining Bart's emotional reactions to the story and his attempts to take control of his life.
Maybe the Simpsons finally hit the phase were its tepid laughs and the show is unable to stay fresh in this business *Honk* *Boing*. But its legend has far outlasted any chance the show will be forgotten. The episode also aged well in that catchphrases are strongly connected to current meme culture/language. Fact is, the whole episode aged well, thanks to no jokes that aged poorly/offensively. The nature of fame may change but there are always going to be aspects that are evergreen, such as the fleeting nature of fame and pop culture moments that burn out fast and hard. People might end up as some shmoe working at a box factory, but the fact that a person gets to have such sudden weird fame for a brief time is fascinating in itself.
Jokes I missed before:
I feel like there were specifics in jokes I didn't understand before but the structure of the joke, I did. Like I didn't know who Ross Perot or Oliver North were at the time but I got that the joke about Bart's biography was that the grown up political stuff had nothing to do with Bart's story.
Also, I think Selma and Patty starting a fire in their apartment was cut for syndication.
The Clue reference. Also, apparently Krusty killed someone? I mean, I guess I'm not surprised.
Other great jokes:
Where to begin. I could spend an entire afternoon on the box factory alone.
"A box damn you! A BOX!"
Bart surprisingly retain something from the box factory visit.
"A certain kind of soft drink has been found to be lethal. We won't tell you which one until after sports and the weather with funny, sunny storms."
Homer's great advice followed by the revelation that its what got him to where he is today. Then comforting Bart over this fact.
"He's dead." "Dead?" "Or sick or something I dunno."
"Repetitiveness is my job."
Other notes:
Seems like they should order more danishes if that's the one barrier between order and chaos at channel six.
The animators give Lisa a facial journey about regretting ragging on Bart's career as Homer talks about punching Urkel.
This isn't an emotion-focused episode (save for the feeling of disillusionment) but Marge gets to add an emotional dimension twice. Like, its far from making me well up with tears but her recontextualizing the situation to make Bart feel better works when she encourages him to keep trying because despite everything his work makes people happy and again when she points out there is a moment in time when you were treasured by everyone. That last one feels especially effective for someone is despite class clown popularity feels very much like he's often at odds with the world (albeit in a very different way to his sister).