Original air date: 1/5/2003 (produced in 2002)
Production code: EABF-02
Principal Skinner constantly bails out on dates with Edna Krabappel in favor of his mother, so she starts spending time with Bart. Bart decides to nominate her for the teacher of the year award in Orlando, and Skinner, realizing he may lose Edna, follows her and the Simpson family to EFCOT Center.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Actor Allusion: Dan Castellaneta voicing a Robin Williams Expy, after previously taking over Williams’ role as the Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and Aladdin: The Series.
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: When Homer goes to the real Disney World after bailing on the EFCOT center, he tries to buy a churro. It costs 14 dollars.
- All-American Face: Bart watches one called Uncle Slam.
- Artistic License – Geography: At the end of the episode, Homer jumps the fence from EFCOT Center into the Magic Kingdom, which are three miles apart as the crow flies.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Bart wrestles with this over the three weeks he has available to produce a 10-page paper.Bart: Gotta focus. Gotta focus. Gotta look at that bird. (Beat) Gotta focus.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- Seymour recalls doing something horrible in Vietnam. A flashback shows him swiping a cupcake next to a "Cupcakes for officers only" sign.
- While watching a fireworks show, Homer amorously tells Marge that they should "go make some fireworks of their own." He then turns to a bag of illegal fireworks and starts filling one with gunpowder.
- Big "NO!": Homer tries to purchase a churro at Disney World, but finds out that it costs $14.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Little Richard when Homer tells him to play "Purple Rain" during the ceremony.Homer: Heh heh. Michael Jackson told me to shut up.
- Boring, but Practical: Edna's non-flashy style makes her stand out from the other wannabe Cool Teacher nominees for the teaching award.Bart: I'd like to nominate my teacher, Mrs. Krabappel. She may not be glamorous or entertaining. She's just a real teacher who comes in every day, no matter what.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Bart actively tries to study over the three weeks, but continues to get distracted by various things like wrestling, photo copying his butt 99 times and Milhouse's uncle in a Blackhawk helicopter offering them a ride. And it's only after he stays afterschool while watched by his teacher does he make a proper report.
- Cheek Copy: When Bart goes to the library to study, another patron buys 100 faxes and only uses one. Unsurprisingly, not much studying happens.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: While trying to buckle down and study, Bart has to contend with everything from a guy at the library inexplicably buying 100 faxes on a faxing machine and leaving 99 untouched to Milhouse's uncle steering a black hawk helicopter through the Simpsons' backyard and offering him a ride. The essay doesn't stand a chance.
- Cool Teacher: Parodied with the Teacher of the Year judges complaining that "Dead Poets Society has destroyed a generation of educators" as so many of the nominees try to be this. They're refreshed by Edna Krabappel, who, as Bart explains, is an ordinary teacher doing her job day in and day out.
- Covered in Gunge: Lisa, Marge, and Edna find Homer and Bart completely covered in slime and ask what happened. Homer simply points to an attraction called "Honey, I Squirted Goo on the Audience."
- Everyone Has Standards: Bart is hurt on Edna's behalf when Skinner breaks another date to cater to his mother, and he's initially horrified by the idea of sabotaging her chances of winning the teaching award, until Skinner tells him that he's become a Teacher's Pet.
- Extreme Doormat: Skinner's inability to say no to his mother when she makes demands of him is a major source of conflict between him and Edna to the point that she briefly dumps him.
- Foreign Wrestling Heel: Bart watches a Middle Eastern themed one called Osama Bin Rotten.
- Give Me a Sign: Bart prays for this when he's faced with the choice between studying and taking advantage of 99 unused faxes on a library fax machine. Instantly his pants fall down.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Nelson calls Bart an idiot for asking if World War I was the one with Hitler or the one with Merlin, and says Merlin was from The Vietnam War.
- Nelson also mocks Edna for crying about being nominated as Teacher of the Year, only for him to start crying when he gets nominated as Bully of the Year.
- I'm Going to Disney World!: With Seymour and Edna getting their happy ending, Homer announces the family is getting one, too: going to Disney World. He immediately hops the wall (despite Disney World's security warning him to keep back) and buys a very expensive churro.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Uncle Slam impales Osama Bin Rotten with an American flagpole.
- Jerkass:
- Agnes Skinner eats up all of Seymour's time and emotionally abuses him throughout the entire time, and is contemptuous of his and Edna's relationship.
- Seymour neglects his and Edna's relationship, tries to sabotage her success in winning Teacher of the Year and blackmails Bart into helping.
- Karma Houdini: Bart is never found about about his prank involving scanning his butt into the Church's bibles.
- Karmic Jackpot: Thanks to Bart making a legend for himself as a dreaded troublemaker and the fact that Edna is still teaching him, the Teacher of the Year committee declare her worthy of a nomination.
- Malaproper: Subverted when Seymour gets Bart to sabotage Edna at the ceremony.Bart: Because I like you, I'll even do it pro boner.
Seymour: It's "pro bono."
Bart: I know what I said. - My God, What Have I Done?: Seymour gets Bart to sabotage Edna's chances of winning the award, but seeing it in action (Bart claiming he can't read), he just can't go through with it and exposes the charade himself.
- Mythology Gag: When Lisa's amazed that Bart hung out with Ms. Krabappel, she asks "What happened to the Bart Simpson who put the mothballs in the beef stew?", a reference to the song "Do The Bartman".
- Older Than They Look: Grandpa mentions that he lied about his age to enlist in World War 1. Cue a flashback to a toddler Abe in the trenches.
- Padding: In-Universe. Bart's World War I report contains only four pages of report and six pages of ads. Him staying after school to redo it is what sets up the episode's main plot.
- Pants-Pulling Prank: God seemingly does this to Bart when he prays in the library.
- Perpetual Poverty: Skinner’ salary only gives him the money to buy the case for an engagement ring, as opposed to an actual engagement ring. Good thing Little Richard has multiple spares.
- Pet the Dog:
- Bart feels sympathetic to Edna being neglected by Seymour and spends time with her outside of school, then nominates her for Teacher of the Year because she survived teaching him.
- Groundskeeper Willie lends Skinner his sports car so he can get to Florida and Edna.
- Little Richard helps Skinner by giving him a ring to propose to Edna.
- Recognition Failure: Homer confuses Little Richard for Michael Jackson during the awards ceremony, and asks him to play "Purple Rain".
- Scare Quotes: One of the ads Bart used to pad out his ten-page essay is for Moe's Tavern, with the phrase "We 'Check' IDs" and an image of Moe winking at the reader.
- Self-Deprecation: When Ms. Krabappel asks "If I lose Seymour, who else is there?" this prompts Bart to think about various male Springfielders, after which he declares "Okay, there's a lot of low cards in that deck." One of those low cards? Simpsons writer George Meyernote .
- Series Continuity Error: The Simpsons visit Disney World in Florida. Ya know, a state they were previously banned from visiting?
- Shout-Out:
- Dead Poets Society is referenced by the committee who judge the Teacher of the Year Award when one of the nominees mentions that he uses humor to teach his students.
- Bart hears "Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate when he thinks of the various men who Edna could date.
- Mrs. Krabappel laments the time she showed her class the Romeo and Juliet where Juliet appeared topless. Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation is known for Olivia Hussey's topless scene.
- The winner of the Teacher of the Year award, a Spanish teacher who taught gang members that words are stronger than bullets, is a blatant call out to Stand and Deliver.
- Shrouded in Myth: Bart's considered an urban legend in the teaching community to the point that he's considered "the Devil in the Blue Shorts." Just surviving teaching him makes Edna eligible for the Teacher of the Year Award.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: In Universe, the Future Sphere ends with Eastern Air Lines enslaving the world and giant robots with airplanes for heads invading Washington D.C. all while "Happy Together" plays.
- Take That!:
- When Bart is surprised to find out there are awards for teaching, Marge responds with "Hey, they have Latin Grammys."
- Dead Poets Society is considered to have ruined a generation of educators when one of the nominees (a blatant expy of Robin Williams) uses humor to teach his students.
- The EFCOT Center is considered the most boring place in Florida. Homer considers it boring to even fly over.
- Within EFCOT is a ride based on internet giant Enron, which is a roller-coaster ressembling a plummeting stock market chart, and the ride ends in a small cabin just called "poor house".
- Homer breaks into Disney World and is appalled that a churro costs $14. He still pays, though, since he's a Big Eater.
- Teacher's Pet: Skinner gets Bart on his side against Mrs. Krabappel by showing him a drawing of himself labeled "TEACHER'S PET" which he claims to have found at the school.
- Tears of Joy: Edna sheds these after she learns that she's been nominated for Teacher of the Year. Nelson gets these too when he's nominated for Bully of the Year.
- Too Dumb to Live: Martin Prince, ever the Teacher's Pet, asks to type his report, so Krabappel then makes typing it mandatory. Quick cut to an already bloody and bruised Martin who then asks to make the report ten pages minimum. He’s tossed out the window by Nelson for this.
- Worst News Judgment Ever: The two front-page stories on the paper Skinner reads are Edna's Teacher of the Year nomination...and a closed pistachio giving Comic Book Guy a hard time.
- Zeerust: EFCOT's Future Sphere, which Lisa describes as "what people in 1965 imagined what life would be like in 1987." It features the futuristic visions of Eastern Air Lines note , such as flying cars, branded cola, and eventual world domination.
