Line #10 Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E9PrankstaRap


1	'''Original air date:''' 2/13/2005 ''(produced in 2004)''
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3	'''Production code:''' GABF-03
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5	Bart fakes his own kidnapping to get out of being punished for going to a rap concert without his parents' permission, but the ruse goes too far when Milhouse's father is implicated as the kidnapper and Chief Wiggum sees this as an opportunity to make a name for himself as a competent police officer.
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7	!! Tropes:
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9	* ActorRoleConfusion: When [[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Barney Fife]] gives advice to Wiggum:
10	--> '''Barney Fife''': Well, I'm wanted back on the set.\
11	'''Wiggum''': "Set"? Are you the character or the actor who plays him?\
12	'''Barney Fife''': ''(ominously)'' Now I must goooo!\
13	'''Wiggum''': Wait a minute, now you're a ''ghost''?\
14	'''Barney Fife''': Avenge me.[[note]]Don Knotts, the actor who played Barney, was still alive when the episode aired.[[/note]]
15	* AesopAmnesia: Lisa insists that lying is bad and that the truth should not be buried despite the good the lie was providing and the trouble the truth will cause. Yet back in “Lisa the Iconoclast”, Lisa decided to keep what she had found out about Jeremiah Springfield secret. Before that in “Separate Vocations”, Bart lies about stealing the teacher’s edition textbooks to cover Lisa’s crime. She also agreed to forget everything about Skinner from "The Principal and the Pauper" incident like the rest of the town.
16	* AlienGeometries: Somehow, Alcatraz has a wax museum in the ''basement of his limo''.
17	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Kirk becomes popular with women after being arrested for kidnapping. For that reason, he's among the people who don't want the truth to be revealed.
18	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Homer and Marge's rap to Bart.
19	* AsHimself: Music/FiftyCent makes a cameo appearance.
20	* BaitAndSwitchComment: There's a scene with Milhouse throwing a Frisbee without anyone to catch it. He says it's not the same without Bart...because Bart usually ''watches'' him doing it.
21	* ContinuityNod: While writing his DissTrack about Homer, Bart gazes at a framed picture of his fall into Springfield Gorge in "Bart the Daredevil."
22	* CreativeClosingCredits: Homer cannonballs into the pool, splashing water on the screen. The first part of the end credits is written in water droplets.
23	* CrooksAreBetterArmed: When Lisa obtains a recording of Alcatraz's concert and Wiggum knows there is no other choice, he barges into Alcatraz's house with his revolver to try to take away the tape at gunpoint. Alcatraz and his entire entourage draw semi-automatics and sub-machineguns on him, many of them as GunsAkimbo. Wiggum then admits his gun isn't even loaded.
24	* DancePartyEnding: The episode culminates with a moral situation: should the truth behind Bart's FakedKidnapping come out or remain covered up? Alcatraz suggests there's only one solution to the dilemma: ''house party!''
25	-->'''Lisa:''' I don't understand. After all the corruption and deceit we've witnessed, how can everyone just party?\
26	'''Homer:''' Lisa, the world is a very complicated place. When you get right down to it... cannonball!
27	* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Bart tries to sneak back to the house but sees Homer getting ready to belt him for going to the concert, which is what spurs him to fake his own kidnapping to get out of it.
28	* DudeWheresMyRespect: When Chief Wiggum is promoted to Commissioner, he promotes Lou to Chief and Eddie to "Lou". The new "Lou" asks who the new "Eddie" will be and Wiggum says they don't need an Eddie.
29	* EasilyForgiven: While Homer is eventually revealed to be in on Bart's cover-up, he doesn't appear to hold any grudges towards Bart for disobeying him, or for Bart mocking Homer in his rap. Probably due to getting a fortune (and losing it soon after) from selling the rights to Bart’s “kidnapping” that helped.
30	* EveryoneHasStandards: Apu, a dude well-known for selling atrocious food products, admits his disgust towards Chintzy Pop since it's a very inferior popcorn and that only idiots would eat it.
31	* FieryCoverup:
32	--> '''Lisa''': A shirt from that rap concert. Bart must've gone to the show. So that means...\
33	'''Homer''': Bart was never kidnapped?! Lisa, I'm very glad you brought me this. I'll see that it gets to the proper authorities. ''(throws it in the fireplace)''\
34	'''Lisa''': Dad! Why did you do that?\
35	'''Homer''': Hollywood producers have paid me a fortune, which I've already lost, for the rights to Bart's story. So I have to destroy anything that proves that story's not true. ''(takes off his shirt and throws it in the fireplace)''\
36	'''Lisa''': Why did you burn up your shirt?\
37	'''Homer''': ''What'' shirt? I don't see any shirt. ''(Takes off his pants and throws it in the fireplace)'' Burn the truth! Burn the truth!
38	* FingerInTheMail: Referenced. When Bart pretends to be kidnapped and makes a call to the rest of the family while posing as the kidnapper, Homer immediately demands that the kidnapper send body parts to prove that he really has Bart. Marge objects.
39	* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: When Lisa asks Homer why he's destroying evidence that Bart wasn't really kidnapped, he tells her that he already sold the rights to Bart's tale for a fortune he already lost (if he didn't make the story up).
40	* FullBodyDisguise: The start of the "Miner '49er" number at Alcatraz's concert involves four old FortyNiner-type men and two mules dancing onto the stage, and then peeling off their full-body suits to reveal dancer girls.
41	* FunWithAcronyms: Homer tells Marge that when Bart gets home, he's gonna be Music/{{NWA}}: "Not without ass-welts."
42	* {{Gasshole}}: One of Bart's impromptu raps:
43	--> '''Bart''': You can trace my remorse to its supersized source: / A hungry, hungry hypocrite named Homer, of course / My old man's pathetic, damn, is his head thick, / the gas from his ass is carcinogenic!
44	* GPSEvidence:
45	** Variation: Wiggum is able to figure out the popping sound on the background of Bart's "proof of life" call is a very specific brand of popcorn that Apu says is so crappy only two men in the whole town of Springfield are stupid enough to purchase it. One is Wiggum himself and the other one is Kirk Van Houten.
46	** The concert video that showcases Bart singing also has two rappers wearing as bling a gigantic clock that shows the exact time and an equally massive necklace that says the exact day.
47	* HonorBeforeReason: Lisa wishes to showcase the truth about Bart's "kidnapping" even if it means destroying Wiggum's promotion, kick Kirk back out to the streets to suffer his StrawLoser life and put everybody else in a legal nightmare. It says quite a lot that Skinner is the only person who wants to help her, and it's solely for the potential pleasure of seeing Bart suffer.
48	* {{Irony}}: Despite being framed for kidnapping Bart, Kirk is much happier in prison: It's nicer than his crappy apartment, and he suddenly has a fanbase of women attracted to prisoners.
49	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: When Wiggum pulled his gun on Alcatraz only to have the rapper's entourage drawing their guns on him, he comments that his gun is not even loaded.
50	* ItsAllAboutMe: Lisa wants to expose Bart's lie, even though it will cause nothing but problems for everyone else. It just comes across as her just wanting to feel good about herself and showing that she's morally superior to everyone else to the point that it would seem more of a PyrrhicVictory.
51	* JerkassBall: Homer and Marge do this by refusing to let Bart go to the Murder 4 Life concert and even intend to spank him when he comes home.
52	** Lisa and Skinner have also done so by planning to expose Bart's lie. It's made pretty clear from the get-go that if she continues the investigation, everybody from the Chief of Police down to her father are all going to be in trouble, but she insists on exposing the truth. As for Skinner? If the truth comes out, Bart will suffer, and that's all the motivation he needs.
53	* KarmaHoudini: Bart, for staging his own kidnapping, worrying Marge sick, and accidentally getting his best friend's dad sent to jail when he's thought to be the kidnapper. The ruse in question accidentally ''helped'' multiple people to the degree that he's inducted into a cover-up to keep the truth from being found out.
54	* MexicanStandoff: Defied at the climax. Alcatraz and his entourage outgun Wiggum tremendously, so he accepts (and whines about) his defeat immediately.
55	* NoodleIncident: The viewers are given no clue to how Homer lost the fortune he got by selling the story about Bart being kidnapped (again, if it was real and not just him making stuff up).
56	* OverlyLongGag: Milhouse repeatedly throwing and then picking up the frisbee.
57	* PissTakeRap: When Homer and Marge forbid Bart from going to the rap concert, they put in a way he can understand: Rap.
58	--> '''Homer''': You did it on the straight, got your dad's permission / But your mom dropped a bomb, so I flipped my position!\
59	'''Marge''': Don't argue with Marge, I know what's best. / The only rap in this crib keeps sandwiches fresh! / Fresh, fr-fresh for Mommy's baby boy!\
60	'''Homer''': Ba-ba-ba-baby boy!
61	* PoliceAreUseless: Some headlines from the ''Springfield Shopper'', shown in this episode: "Wiggum sleeps through riot", "Commission: Wiggum sucks", "Firemen save police chief from tree", and so on.
62	-->'''Wiggum:''' [[LampshadeHanging Man, I really should’ve read these headlines a long time ago]]. Together they paint a picture. Of failure.
63	* PottyFailure: After Milhouse complains that Bart framed Kirk for kidnapping:
64	--> '''Bart''': If you tell anyone, I'll tell the world you wet your pants watching Harry Potter.\
65	'''Milhouse''': I wasn't scared, I was just peeing!
66	* PrinciplesZealot: Lisa wants to make the truth about Bart's faked kidnapping known, even if everybody else (who has benefited from it in one way or another and has a ''lot'' to lose as a result) wishes to keep it buried. The only person willing to help her, Principal Skinner, does so out of sheer spite for Bart (and he says so at the very moment he accepts her request).
67	* RankUp: After “saving” Bart, Wiggum is promoted to Commissioner, Lou to Chief and Eddie to [[WhatExactlyIsHisJob Lou’s rank]].
68	* SincerityMode: After Bart is "saved", the ''Springfield Shopper'' writes: "Wiggum rescues boy - No, really"
69	* SnowballLie: Bart lying about being kidnapped by Milhouse's father: it makes Chief Wiggum rise to Commissioner, Milhouse's father becomes popular with the ladies (while in prison) and receives more meals a day, and Bart becomes friends with Alcatraz.
70	* TheStinger: In a post-credits scene, Skinner is interested in joining Alcatraz's rap group. Turns out Chalmers has already been hired, because his wife is sick and he needs the money.
71	* StrawLoser: Kirk's traits as one of these actually become an important plot point: he's so flat broke that he's only able to buy an incredibly crappy brand of popcorn (that is most "made" out of unsanitary stuff like ''loose human teeth'') that Wiggum is capable of recognizing by sound on the recording of Bart's "demand" call (because he's the only other person in Springfield who purchases that brand -- which, as Apu clearly states, doesn't says much about Kirk's or Wiggum's intelligences, either). As well, Kirk's pad is so shitty that living in prison gen-pop is an actual ''improvement'' (plus he gets three free meals and ladies that love dangerous convicts want to meet him), which makes him quite willing to help maintain the lie.
72	* SubcultureOfTheWeek: "Gangsta" Rap. Bart starts his fanaticism by wearing a hoodie and improvising lyrics a la ''Film/EightMile'' and escalates to running away from home (which then escalates to ''faking being kidnapped'') to go to a concert.
73	* TakeAThirdOption: An absurd invocation: rather than having to deal with the hard moral dilemma of exposing the truth about the faked kidnapping, Alcatraz triggers a DancePartyEnding that solves nothing but makes everybody (but Lisa) happy.
74	* TheVictimMustBeConfused: Bart fakes his own kidnapping and Milhouse hides him at Kirk’s apartment, only for Wiggum to pick up the SmartBall, trace Bart's location, and apprehend Kirk (who had no idea Bart was there) as the kidnapper. Bart's attempt to take the heat off Kirk does nothing.
75	-->'''Bart:''' Uh, Chief? Is Milhouse's dad gonna be in trouble? He's not really a bad guy!
76	-->'''Wiggum:''' Now now, there's no need for you to defend your captor, Bratty Hearst.
77	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the parade honoring Wiggum, Milhouse complains to Bart that he has to admit the lie because he doesn't want his dad to stay in jail. While it turns out that Kirk actually likes being in jail over his apartment, the episode concludes that everyone is happy with the lie, although Milhouse is never seen after the parade despite clearly being unhappy.

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS16E9PrankstaRap