History Recap / TheSimpsonsS2E8BartTheDaredevil

The Simpsons family end up attending a monster truck rally one night, which features a performance by renowned daredevil Lance Murdock. Despite Murdock's stunt going hideously wrong, landing him in the hospital, Bart declares the man his new hero and aspires to be a daredevil himself. Bart isn't put off when he's injured during his first attempt, even when he's introduced to a ward of children who have been left badly hurt by attempting daredevil stunts of their own, if anything else it pushes him to succeed.

The Simpsons family end up attending a monster truck rally one night, which features a performance by renowned daredevil Lance Murdock. Despite Murdock's stunt going hideously wrong, landing him in the hospital, Bart declares the man his new hero, and aspires to be a daredevil himself. Bart isn't put off when he's injured during his first attempt, even when he's introduced to a ward of children who have been left badly hurt by attempting daredevil stunts of their own, if anything else it pushes him to succeed.

Bart keeps his stunts fairly tame to start with, using his skateboard to jump over cars, animals and swimming pools, but soon sets his sights on jumping the Springfield Gorge. Lisa is horrified and takes Bart to meet Murdock in the hospital, hoping that the man will get Bart to change his mind. Unfortunately Murdock only encourages Bart, and so Lisa has no choice but to give in and tell their parents. However Bart stubbornly ignores anything that Homer has to say, and still heads out to the gorge to complete the stunt.

Homer follows Bart, and determined to show Bart how it feels to watch a family member do something incredibly stupid and dangerous, attempts to perform the stunt himself.

* AmusingInjuries: Downplayed. Homer's pain and injuries from falling down the gorge seem more serious than the way it would be treated on common contemporary cartoons or a WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes classic like Wile. E. Coyote. But on the other hand, it's far from realistic or graphic, and most important of all, it doesn't go with an extreme level of painfulness, but rather, something [[RuleOfFunny exactly as painful as it can get while still being very funny]]. It definitely falls in the middle ground between realism vs. pure slapstick.
* AuthorAppeal: The writers and many other staff members were big fans of Evel Knievel and it shows.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Dr. Hibbert, in his first appearance, is as a stern, competent professional. By his very next appearance, he became somewhat absent-minded and laugh-prone ("Ah-hee-hee-hee!") and an {{Expy}} of Creator/BillCosby, complete with a wife who looks like Phylicia Rashad (only with darker skin), a teenage son who looks like Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and a daughter who looked like Keisha Knight-Pulliam and in later seasons got himself a MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate.

* CouchGag: Homer tips the couch over on its side with everyone on it, except Maggie, who falls onto couch cushion.

* HeelFaceTurn: Rasputin the Friendly Russian (nee` the Mad Russian), thanks to the [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar inevitable forces of history]].

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: A self-inflicted example; Homer and Marge (mostly Homer) are worried because their son wants to risk his life to become a daredevil. Homer eventually makes Bart give up by threatening to jump over Springfield Gorge so Bart will know what's like fearing for a family member's life.

* ThreeStoogesShoutOut: Dr. Hibbert says a lot of children imitate violence they saw on TV: "I won't even subject you to the horrors of our Three Stooges ward."
* TruthInTelevision: Lisa's speech about the effects of the fall of the Soviet Union's effects on pro wrestling was actually pretty spot on. Not long after the SU fell, many previously highly established "Evil Russian" heels began turning into America friendly faces, most notably Nikolai Volkoff and Nikita Koloff.

* HeelFaceTurn: Rasputin the Friendly Russian (n&eeacute; the Mad Russian), thanks to the [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar inevitable forces of history]].

* HeelFaceTurn: Rasputin the Friendly Russian (né the Mad Russian), thanks to the [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar inevitable forces of history]].

Bart keeps his stunts fairly tame to start with, using his skateboard to jump over cars, animals and swimming pools, but soon sets his sights on jumping the Springfield Gorge. Lisa is horrified and takes Bart to meet Murdock in hospital, hoping that the man will get Bart to change his mind. Unfortunately Murdock only encourages Bart, and so Lisa has no choice but to give in and tell their parents. However Bart stubbornly ignores anything that Homer has to say, and still heads out to the gorge to complete the stunt.

The Simpsons family end up attending a monster truck rally one night, which features a performance by renowned daredevil Lance Murdock. Despite Murdock's stunt going hideously wrong, landing him in hospital, Bart declares the man his new hero, and aspires to be a daredevil himself. Bart isn't put off when he's injured during his first attempt, even when he's introduced to a ward of children who have been left badly hurt by attempting daredevil stunts of their own, if anything else it pushes him to succeed.

* EpicFail: The ambulance carrying Homer goes about five feet before crashing front-first into a tree, causing Homer's gurney to roll out the back and down the gorge.

* NiceGuy: The folks at the Monster Truck Rally are very accomodating after the family is mistakenly attacked by Truckasaurus, apologising sincerely, writing them a cheque to make up the damages to the car, and providing a bottle of champagne.

* AmusingInjuries: Downplayed. Homer's pain and injuries from falling down the gorge seem more serious than the way it would be treated on common contemporary cartoons or a WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes classic like Wile. E. Coyote. But on the other hand, it's far from realistic or graphic, and most important of all, it doesn't go with an extreme level of painfulness, but rather, something [[RuleOfFunny exactly as painful as it can get while still being very funny]]. It definitely falls in the middle ground between realism vs. a pure slapstick.

* BaitAndSwitch: Despite the obnoxious TestosteronePoisoning commercial and the many problems faced getting there (including Truckasaurus totalling their car ''with them inside'') the whole family has a great time at the Monster Truck Rally, even Marge and Lisa.
* BaitAndSwitchComment: When Bart first mentions his intention, Otto is the only adult around and the way Otto mentions it suggests he'll try to talk Bart out of it but instead he encourages Bart.

* RiddleForTheAges: Would Bart had made the jump to the other side of the gorge? Even if it seems likely that he would not, possibly working in his favor is him having a much smaller girth than his father's and knowing not to celebrate before making it to the other side like Homer did.

* AdultFear: When it sinks in that it's literally impossible for him to prevent his 10-year-old son from making a doomed skateboard jump over Springfield Gorge if he's made up his mind to do it and doesn't care about punishments or potential consequences, Homer breaks down crying, saying Bart's "as good as dead."
-->'''Bart:''' Hey, man, you can tell me not to do it, but there's no way you can watch me 24 hours a day, and the minute your back is turned I'm grabbing my skateboard and headin' for that gorge.

* AdultFear: When it sinks in that it's literally impossible for him to prevent his 10-year-old son from eventually making a doomed skateboard jump over Springfield Gorge, Homer breaks down crying, saying Bart's "as good as dead."