Line #21 Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E3LisasSax


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lisa__s_sax_by_williamfreeman_d58j3o1.png]]
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3	'''Original air date:''' 10/19/1997 ''(produced in 1996)''
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5	'''Production code:''' 3G02
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7	After Lisa's saxophone gets crushed in the street, Homer tells the story of how Lisa first discovered her musical talent -- which coincides with the tragic tale of how Bart's first day of kindergarten turned him into the troublemaker he is today.
8
9	This is the third of four episodes produced by Al Jean and Mike Reiss instead of the current showrunner (in this case, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein). Jean would return as showrunner starting in season 13.
10	----
11	!!Tropes:
12	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Even budding bullies Jimbo and Nelson think Bart is hilarious when he launches into his ClassClown routine. Skinner, not so much.
13	* AsHimself: Fyvush Finkel as himself playing Krusty the Clown in [[ShowWithinAShow the TV movie]] ''[[ShortTitleLongElaborateSubtitle The Krusty the Clown Story: Booze, Drugs, Guns, Lies, Blackmail,]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Laughter!]]''
14	* AuthorAvatar: Al Jean modeled the boy who eats worms on himself, as he ate worms as a child. He even looks like Jean.
15	* BatmanParody: Bart sings a song called ''Buttman''.
16	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The episode shows the route of Bart and Milhouse's friendship surprisingly started with Bart feeling this way towards Milhouse, before Bart became a troublemaker when he was just a depressed kid who Milhouse was willing to sit with and gave him the confidence to joke around in front of the class.
17	* BigStupidDooDooHead: Bart's earliest ClassClown efforts consist entirely of this, since he's only five. However, since he's playing to an audience of other similarly young kids, they love it.
18	-->'''Bart:''' Doody! Booger!
19	-->'''[[ActuallyPrettyFunny Jimbo]]:''' ''(wiping a tear)'' Man, that is killer material.
20	* BlatantLies: Homer flashes back to having said to Barney as a kid "Let's Never Drink Again!" Then in the present day he says, holding a beer, "And we never did!" as he proceeds to take a sip.
21	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Bart makes fun of Principal Skinner, singing "Skinner is a nut, he has a rubber butt!". Skinner responds by saying, "Young man, I can assure you my posterior is nothing more than flesh, bone, and that metal plate I got in 'Nam."
22	* BreakTheCutie: Bart was once an adorable well-behaved little tyke, until the miseries of schooling turned him into the troublemaker he is now.
23	* TheBusCameBack:
24	** Dr. J. Loren Pryor, the Springfield Elementary School psychiatrist from the early seasons comes back during flashbacks discussing Bart's and Lisa's potential.
25	** Lunch Lady Doris, who was retired from the show after voice actor Doris Grau passed away, appears in the flashbacks.[[note]]This episode was originally produced before Grau's death but aired several years after she died[[/note]] She'd permanently be back starting in season 18, voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille.
26	* CallBack: Moe's Tavern being located next to a music store, King Toot's, was a plot point in the episode "Lisa's Pony." It turns out King Toot's is also where Homer got Lisa her saxophone when he was visiting Moe's and saw the instruments advertised by the store as a good way to encourage a gifted child.
27	* CelebrityParadox: ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' was once America's leading source of musical comedy and [[SelfDeprecation "crudely-drawn filler material".]]
28	* CardCarryingVillain: Jimbo Jones is the ''official'' school bully and is introduced by Skinner as such.
29	* CerebusRetcon: Bart's hilarious troublemaking antics and general lack of effort at school are the result of (explicitly diagnosed) trauma after the first teacher he ever had punted him across the DespairEventHorizon at the tender age of five. Even the {{Catchphrase}} "Eat my shorts" [[FlashbackToCatchphrase saw its first use]] when Skinner directly told him that [[TwoRoadsBeforeYou he was about to embark on a path that might predict the rest of his life]].
30	* CerebusSyndrome: The aforementioned CerebusRetcon basically demonstrates the realistic affects of the {{Apathetic Teacher}}s in Springfield Elementary. While the school board is routinely shown as uncaring, demeaning and openly contemptuous towards the children they are forced to educate, this was generally PlayedForLaughs with the students often biting back, this episode shows the psychological affects of Bart having an uncaring and verbally abusive kindergarden teacher and has it PlayedForDrama, causing him to give up on learning and become a hellraiser for any sort of positive attention.
31	* ClassClown: Bart's half of the episode is an origin story for his role as this in the show.
32	* ComicBookTime: This is the first episode to play with the established timeline of the Simpson family. Bart is entering kindergarten in 1990, when previously that was the year Maggie was born and Bart would have already been 10 in 1990 (if he were born in 1980, he would have been kindergarten-aged in 1985, which was when Homer and his friends became a barbershop quartet). The writers have always been upfront about this since the characters never age; Al Jean even admitted that they knew they'd get into this the moment they first mentioned Homer and Marge's senior year. To add an extra level of confusion, while produced two seasons earlier, the episode didn't air until 1997. As a consequence, the reference to the characters being five years younger in 1990 didn't make sense even when the episode first aired.
33	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Homer's tale about how Lisa got her saxophone initially ends with Bart's miserable first day of school.
34	-->'''Homer:''' And that my children, is the story of Bart's first day of school.\
35	'''Bart:''' Very nice.\
36	'''Homer:''' Yeah.\
37	'''Lisa:''' Yeah. Except you were supposed to be telling the story of how I got my saxophone!\
38	'''Homer:''' (''{{beat}}'') D'oh!
39	* CouchGag: The family are Russian nesting dolls with Homer's top half sitting on the couch, then Marge, followed by Bart, Lisa, and Maggie staying in the bottom halves.
40	* CrushParade: Lisa's prized saxophone accidentally sailed out her bedroom window and into the street where it's run over by a car, a truck (driven by Hans Moleman), stamped on by Nelson (who then points at it and mocks, "Ha ha"), and concludes with [[Series/LaughIn a person on a tricycle who falls over to the side]] when his front tire hits what remains of the flattened saxophone. (And to top it all off, [[LosingHorns the sax produces a "Wah Wah" sound after all that]].)
41	* CycleOfRevenge: Seeing Lisa upset about her destroyed saxophone, Homer offers to break something of Bart's. When Bart protests, Homer says he'll break something of Maggie's to make it up to him.
42	* DisproportionateRetribution: According to Bart's preschool teacher, adding one extra clap while singing "Bingo" (at the age of ''five years old'', mind you) makes you ineligible for college.
43	* FictionIsntFair: Principal Skinner introduces some members of staff to the new students, including school bully Jimbo.
44	-->'''Jimbo:''' (making a punching gesture) I look forward to whaling on all of you.
45	** Heck, the entire episode uses this trope to justify why Bart hates school. He actually looked forward to it, until everyone and everything on his first day served to BreakTheCutie in ludicrous ways -- like his kindergarten teacher declaring him "not college material" simply because he threw in an extra clap while singing "Bingo".
46	* FirstFriend: Things finally begin to look up for Bart when Milhouse starts talking to him.
47	* FlashbackToCatchphrase: Skinner catches the young Bart just beginning to go down the ClassClown path and tells him that the choices he makes now will shape his future. Bart's response? "Eat my shorts!"
48	* FreudianExcuse: This episode goes out of the way to explain that Bart is troublemaker today because his kindergarten teacher [[SadistTeacher basically said he'd never amount to anything]] just because he wasn't as quick as the other kids to catch on to things.
49	* FreudianSlip: Principal Skinner accidentally introduces himself as "Principal Sinner". As the kindergartners laugh, Skinner mutters "That's it, I've lost them forever..."
50	* FriendOrIdolDecision: When Homer finally has enough money to buy his own air conditioner in a flashback, he's torn between buying it or a saxophone for Lisa so she can express her musical talents. He chooses to get Lisa her saxophone. He does this again in the present day to get a replacement saxophone after the original gets destroyed.
51	* HateSink: Bart's kindergarten teacher is nothing but a {{sadist\|Teacher}}ic, [[{{Jerkass}} mean spirited]] [[TheBully bully]].
52	* HilariousInFlashback: Homer's dad let him drink beer when he was a child and he wound up crashing his wagon into a tree, prompting [[TheAlcoholic Barney]] to say, "Let's never drink again."
53	* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Lampshaded.
54	-->'''Homer:''' (''to young Bart'') Now, son, on your first day of school, I'd like to pass along the words of advice my father gave me.\
55	(''thought bubble with Abe and young Homer'')\
56	'''Younger Abe:''' Homer, you're dumb as a mule and twice as ugly! And if a strange man offers you a ride, I say take it!\
57	'''Homer:''' (''muttering'') Lousy traumatic childhood!
58	* {{Hyperaffixation}}: When Homer and Lisa visit a music store:
59	-->'''Homer:''' So, what do you like, Lisa? Vio-ma-lin? Tuba-ma-ba? Oboe-mo-boe?\
60	'''Lisa:''' That one!\
61	'''Homer:''' Oh, saxo-ma-phone.
62	* HypocriticalHumor:
63	** This scene between Homer and young Bart.
64	--->'''Homer:''' Bart, son? You want to play catch?\
65	'''Young Bart:''' No.\
66	'''Homer:''' When a boy doesn't want to play catch with his old man, something is seriously wrong!\
67	'''Abe:''' (''wearing old-time baseball uniform'') I'll play catch with you, son!\
68	'''Homer:''' Get the hell out!\
69	'''Abe:''' I'm gone.
70	** After watching the Krusty TV-Movie mentioned above, Homer calls him a bad father, as Maggie walks by carrying an electric drill.
71	* INeedAFreakingDrink: From the Michigan J. Frog {{Expy}}:
72	-->"We're proud ta present on thuh Dubbaya Bee, anudda bad show that no-one will see-ee-eee! Ugh, I need a drink."
73	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: When young Bart first made fun of Principal Skinner:
74	-->'''Young Bart:''' (''singing'') Skinner is a nut, he has a rubber butt!\
75	'''Skinner:''' Young man, I can assure you my posterior is nothing more than [[BreadEggsMilkSquick flesh, bone, and that metal plate I got in 'Nam]].
76	* {{Jerkass}}: Bart's kindergarten teacher and Skinner.
77	* KarmaHoudini:
78	** Bart's kindergarten teacher. The episode shows that the cruel treatment he received from his teacher contributed greatly to shaping Bart's future behavior. Simply put, she wrote down Bart as a lost cause because he didn't catch on to things as quickly as the other kids, and has been emotionally and psychologically abusing him ever since. He was just '''five years old''' and he was already considering suicide. And neither Marge and Homer, thanks to Homer brushing off all of Bart's problems, nor Skinner are ever notified of or call her out on her discrimination at any point. It's likely that this teacher, whether she knows it or not, is still putting down children that she deems slow and turning them into future Barts.
79	** Homer combines this with IdiotHoudini by not even caring about Bart's problems at school by calling him a lost cause. Even Marge, who herself is shown not actually getting into the root of the problem by talking to Bart's teacher, showing him Bart's upsetting drawing doesn't get him to change his ways, and simply causes him to yell for the drawing to be sent to Hell.
80	* KiddyCoveralls: Lisa is shown wearing overalls to show she's much younger then the present
81	* KillItWithFire: Marge shows Homer a picture an upset Bart drew:
82	-->'''Marge:''' Homer, I want you to look at this drawing Bart did.
83	-->'''Homer:''' ''[watching TV]'' Oh, it's beautiful! Oh, oh, let's put Bart's beautiful drawing up on the fridge!
84	-->'''Marge:''' Homer, stop. Will you please look at the drawing?
85	-->'''Homer:''' Oh, all right. What...''[looks at drawing]''...aaah!! Burn it! Send it to hell!
86	* LampshadeHanging:
87	-->'''Homer:''' Our family was suffering through its worst crisis ever: Bart was miserable at school and Lisa's gifts were going to waste.\
88	'''Bart:''' Uh, Homer, it's five years later, and I'm still miserable at school.\
89	'''Lisa:''' And my gifts are still going to waste.
90	* LiteralMetaphor: When Homer sees Lisa looking at the music shop, he says "A musical instrument? Could that be a way to encourage a gifted child? (''looking upward'') Just give me a sign!". That's when the shop owner puts a sign in the window saying "Musical instruments: the way to encourage a gifted child.", to which Homer says "Eh, works for me." and they go inside and purchase Lisa's saxophone.
91	* LiteralMinded: Homer attempts to evade the consequences of stealing Flanders's air conditioner by reminding him that the Bible says "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". He is then hit by a stone cast by Todd.
92	-->"Got him, Dad!"
93	* LogoJoke: The Gracie Films jingle is redone with--what else?--Lisa's saxophone.
94	* MisplacedKindergartenTeacher: {{Inverted}} with Bart's SadistTeacher, who's essentially a misplaced high school or college instructor, already trying to determine the academic futures of her five-year-old students based on kindergarten activities.
95	* MistakenForGay:
96	-->'''Dr. Pryor:''' Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, there's nothing to be alarmed about. Public school can be intimidating to a young child, particularly one with as many flamboyantly homosexual tendencies as your son.
97	-->'''Marge:''' Bart's gay?
98	-->'''Dr. Pryor:''' ''Bart?'' Uh--Whoo! Wrong file.
99	-->''(He puts away a file labeled MILHOUSE VAN HOUTEN.)''
100	* MourningAnObject: The saxophone Lisa has played throughout the series is destroyed, and we finally get to learn the story of how she got it in the first place--which even she didn't know, having had it since before she could remember. Homer bought it for her, and Homer is the one who replaces it at the end of the episode.
101	* NameOne:
102	-->'''Homer:''' Marge, name one successful person in life who ever lived without air conditioning.
103	-->'''Marge:''' Balzac!
104	-->'''Homer:''' [[WhosOnFirst No need for potty mouth just because you can't think of one]].
105	* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Bart did a [[http://springfieldfiles.com/albums/notes/0036.JPG "Sad" drawing]] after his first day at school.
106	-->'''Marge:''' Homer, I want you to look at this drawing Bart did.
107	-->'''Homer:''' ''(takes drawing but without taking his eyes off of the TV)'' Ohhh, it's ''beautiful!'' Oh! Oh let's put Bart's beautiful drawing up on the ''fridge--''
108	-->'''Marge:''' Homer, stop! Would you please ''look'' at the drawing?
109	-->'''Homer:''' Oh, alright. ''(looks)'' What a-- ''(screams)'' [[KillItWithFire BURN IT! SEND IT TO HELL!]]
110	-->'''Marge:''' I think we're going to have to get Bart some help.
111	-->'''Homer:''' Get it away!
112	* NoodleIncident: Grandpa blurts out at one point "I realized I could make money selling my medication to deadheads." He chooses not to elaborate further.
113	* NotHelpingYourCase: After Lisa points out there's a cockroach in with the pickled eggs in front of the health inspector (see OhCrap below), Moe tries to smooth things over by giving the guy a margarita... that has a syringe in the glass. Moe weakly [[BlatantLies claims it's a parasol]] when the inspector [[DeathGlare glowers at him]].
114	* OhCrap: After Lisa notices the pickled egg jar contains a cockroach.
115	-->'''Moe:''' That’s nice. Who are you then, sweetheart? [[TemptingFate The health inspector?]]
116	-->'''Man at bar:''' No, but I am.
117	* OverlyLiteralTranscription: As Homer dictates a dedication for Lisa's saxophone, he tells the clerk to write "To Lisa, never forget your Daddy loves-", when he drops the sax on his feet and says "D'oh!", which is transcribed as "To Lisa, never forget your Daddy loves D'OH!" In the end of the episode, Lisa gets a new sax with the dedication "To Lisa, may your new saxophone bring you years of D'OH!".
118	* ParentalFavoritism: When Dr. Pryor tells Homer and Marge that Lisa is gifted, Homer suggests that he and Marge brush Bart's problems aside, claiming that his life is over (despite him only being five) and that Lisa's the wave of the future. Not even caring at all that Bart's suffering at school even with Marge's concerns about their son's continually troubling behavior.
119	* PerformanceAnxiety: Bart is so afraid of his kindergarten teacher's harsh judgement that he forgets the alphabet (which he clearly knows since he writes "SAD" above [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior a picture of him stabbed with multiple knives]]), which causes her to be [[SelfFulfillingProphecy even more judgemental of him than before]].
120	* PlayingCatchWithTheOldMan: Bart rejects Homer's offer to play catch. Homer says that there's something wrong when a boy doesn't want to play catch with his father; Abe (wearing an old-fashioned baseball uniform) then offers to play catch with Homer, but Homer tells him to go away.
121	* RacialFaceBlindness: In the Krusty TV movie, "Krusty" is shown telling his Chinese stepson Chan-Ho he's breaking up with his mother Creator/MiaFarrow, but the boy actually tells him Chan-Ho is elsewhere, and he himself is Chin-Ho.
122	* ReallyDeadMontage: Towards the end, as Lisa plays her new saxophone, we see a montage of Lisa playing her original saxophone set to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street".
123	* SadClown: 5-year-old Bart went down the [[ClassClown path]] he did because it was the only way for him to get any joy out of being at school after being firmly written off by his first teacher. In the present, he admits that he's miserable at school to this day.
124	-->'''Milhouse:''' You're funny.
125	-->'''Bart:''' I am?
126	-->'''Milhouse:''' Yeah, and the world needs a clown.
127	* SadistTeacher: Bart's kindergarten teacher.
128	-->'''Teacher:''' And the ugly duckling was amazed to realize it had grown into a beautiful swan. [[HopeSpot So you see children, there is hope for anyone]]. \
129	'''Bart:''' Even me? \
130	'''Teacher:''' [[KickTheDog No]].
131	* TheSeventies: During Homer and Marge's shout-out to ''All In The Family'', they make several cultural references to pop culture from the decade, including Music/TheBeeGees, ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo'' and Elvis' fluctuating weight.
132	* ShoutOut: Homer finds ''Series/TwinPeaks'' to be brilliant, even though he has no idea what's going on.
133	* SongParody: Homer and Marge sing their own version of "Those Were the Days", spoofing the opening sequence of ''Series/AllInTheFamily'', complete with a narrator saying "''The Simpsons'' is filmed in front of a live studio audience" and Homer calling Bart "Meathead" afterwards.
134	* SmallRoleBigImpact: The [[KarmaHoudini Preschool Teacher's]] treatment of Bart, is the reason Bart is Bart today. What makes it worse is that Bart was just ''5 years old'' and her actions made Bart actually consider [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]. To specify, the teacher basically wrote off Bart as a lost cause because he didn't catch on to things as quickly as the other kids:
135	-->'''Bart:''' ''(singing)'' B-I-clap-clap-clap-O and Bingo was his name-o.
136	-->'''Teacher:''' ''(writing on a clip board)'' Extra clap; not college material.
137	* SpotlightStealingSquad: Parodied when Lisa asks to be told the story about how she got her saxophone, and is instead told about Bart's first day at school. This was the producers' way of lampshading how the executives had a habit of demanding episodes and merchandise in the show's early seasons be more Bart-centric; by this point in the show's run, Homer and Lisa had become much more the focal characters.
138	* StartOfDarkness: The flashback of how Lisa got her saxophone also contains the tragi-comic story of how Bart became a bad kid at school (his kindergarten teacher openly told him [[SadistTeacher he had no future whatsoever]] and he was bullied by Jimbo Jones; all while Homer calling him and his problems as nothing more than a lost cause).
139	* StepfordSmiler: Marge reveals that sometimes she feels so smothered by being a mother that she wants to scream until her head explodes. Sadly, no one shows any concern for her about it and she continues repressing her feelings.
140	* StylisticSuck: Marge's loud, high-pitched, out-of-tune delivery of the line "and you knew where you were then" cemented the ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' parody.
141	* TakeThat: To Creator/TheWB network.
142	-->'''Michigan J. Frog:''' (''singing'') We're proud to present on the WB, another bad show that no one will see! (''disgustedly walking off'') Ah, I need a drink...
143	** The blackboard gag for this episode is "[[Music/DireStraits I no longer want my]] Creator/{{MTV}}," which is what a lot of people have said about MTV thanks to its infamous NetworkDecay (airing shows that have nothing to do with music or music videos).
144	* TemptingFate: "School will be fun!" Sure it will, Bart...
145	* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Bart can't win with his kindergarten teacher no matter what he does. At least as the smart-mouthed ClassClown he earns the admiration of his fellow students.
146	* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Apu, who lampshades this with "For no reason, here's Apu..." as he joins in the reprise of "Those Were The Days", and periodically makes wisecracks.
147	-->'''Homer:''' Aww, but Marge, am I doomed to spend the rest of my life sweating like a pig?
148	-->'''Bart:''' Yeah, not to mention looking like a pig, eating like a pig...
149	-->'''Apu:''' (''through window'') Don't forget the smell!
150	-->'''Homer:''' Will you get off my front lawn?
151	-->'''Apu:''' Why don't you make me?
152	-->'''Abe:''' (''covering his eyes'') Where's Maggie? Where's Maggie? I'm not kidding, I can't see! My retinas have detached again!
153	-->(''Homer and Marge laugh'')
154	-->'''Apu:''' (''walking in, laughing'') He is blind as a bat!
155	-->(''[[EverybodyLaughsEnding everybody laughs]]'')
156	* TwoRoadsBeforeYou: After witnessing his antics, Skinner tells Bart he can either continue being a class clown or apologize right now and be well-behaved.
157	-->'''Skinner:''' You listen to me, son. You've just started school, and the path you choose now may be the one you follow for the rest of your life. Now, what do you say?\
158	''[{{beat}}]''\
159	'''Bart:''' [[FlashbackToCatchphrase Eat my shorts]].
160	* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: The story of how Lisa got her first saxophone turns out to be intimately intertwined with the story of how the school, the Simpson parents, and Bart himself gave up on Bart's future and put their hope in Lisa instead, all when the two were respectively five and three years old.
161	* WritersCannotDoMath: Even though the episode aired in 1997, they still identify 1990 as "five years ago" instead of 1992, due to the episode having gotten produced during season 7 (1995-96).

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS9E3LisasSax