"Bart the Cool Kid" is an episode of The Simpsons that first aired on March 20, 2022. Episode Code Number UABF08.
Ralph Wiggum (Nancy Cartwright) shows up at school wearing a pair of Slipremes, currently the most popular brand of sneakers. Bart tells Homer and Marge that they must buy him a pair of the new Slipreme Caliphate Two.
Homer gets in line at the store, but then Mike Wegman (Michael Rapaport) shows up and gives Homer a free pair of Slipreme knockoffs. At school, Bart impresses everyone, but then he tries to do a skateboard trick and the cheap shoes fall apart in mid-air, and are thus revealed to be made of garbage like old North Korean newspapers.
Bart, believing the shoes to be genuine Slipremes, goes to the store to demand a refund, which the cashier of course refuses to give. Homer shows up at the store and Bart realizes that Homer actually failed to stand in line long enough to actually buy the genuine article.
Bart's humiliation at the Slipreme store is caught on video and goes viral. On the plus side, it brings Bart to the attention of Orion Hugues (The Weeknd), a social media star who peddles the Slipremes on his channel. Orion gives Bart two closets' worth of authentic Slipreme skate wear and shoes, and Bart teaches Orion how to skate. Orion decides to create a new pair of Slipreme shoes based on Bart, the Bartman One.
Meanwhile, Homer, Marge and Lisa eat hard-shell tacos and make a mess of their dining room and their clothes. Disappointed, Homer goes to Moe's dressed in Slipreme clothes. Next thing you know, every middle-aged man in Springfield is wearing Slipreme clothes and shoes, leading Orion to fear that their lameness will destroy the Slipreme brand.
Marge intercepts Homer and the other middle-aged men before they can enter the premiere party for the Bartman One. She redirects the men to the Museum of Aviation History. Presumably, the Bartman One launch party is a success, and Orion learns that he is a clone of his movie star father Darius (also The Weeknd).
Tropes:
- Accidental Dance Craze: The video of Bart in his underwear spawns a dance craze, the Pants Kid Shimmy.
- Auto-Incorrect: When Homer tries to tell Bart not to return the bootleg Slipremes, he texts "No no no no no!" This gets autocorrected to "On on on on on!", which Bart takes as encouragement to do it.
- Bait-and-Switch: At a critical moment, Bart picks up the phone and says, "You said if I ever needed you, you'd come, no matter what. This is that call."Marge: (at the grocery store) Okey-dokey! Want me to grab you some mini carrots and hummus?Bart: Yes.
- The Bus Came Back: Mike Wegman from "Go Big or Go Homer" returns, whose food truck business ended because "someone" pushed the truck off a bridge, and now he is running a business of counterfeit items. As before, he still holds no respect towards Bart or any responsibility for screwing people over.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Homer accidentally rips out Bart's pants, leaving him in his briefs in the store, with everyone shooting video of it.
- Continuity Nod: Kirk wears a hat with a picture of Poochie on it.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Bart tries to return the sneakers Homer bought him only to be told they're bootlegs.Bart: My dad waited in line for these shoes and spent a lot of money, and Homer Simpson would never lie to his son just to get out of standing in line (Gasp!) Oh my God he bought me fake shoes.
- The Freelance Shame Squad: While Bart is trying to return the shoes, still not knowing they are fake, everyone decides to film his predicament and laugh at him instead, having No Sympathy whatsoever. Then again, it is Springfield.
- Humiliation Conga: On top of finding out that his shoes were fake when he tries to return them, Bart has his pants torn off when Homer tries to keep him from leaving. And the whole thing is posted online and goes viral.
- Idiot Ball: Bart, despite acknowledging Homer as a bad parent, asks him to buy some shoes. Marge isn't busy, doesn't have any objections, is more responsible than Homer, and usually does the family's clothes shopping anyways, so there's no reason Bart couldn't have asked her instead. Even then, Bart doesn't go with Homer to get the shoes and make sure he does it right, and Homer ends up buying cheap bootlegs because he doesn't want to wait in line. Considering Bart's consistent lack of respect for Homer, it's odd that he would put this much trust in him.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Bart trying to return the counterfeit shoes, and the ensuing fight with Homer, is shot on video and posted, becoming viral.
- It's All About Me: At the end of the episode, Darius reveals to Orion that he's actually a clone, because Darius is so self-centered that he could never love a son as much as himself.
- It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: In-Universe, Bart and Orion panic that Homer and his buddies are now wearing Slipreme wear, and will cause the brand to lose its edge and end up just like Ed Hardy, an artist who started out cool until old people started liking his designs.
- Long-Runner Tech Marches On: Technology associated with men Homer's age and therefore considered uncool by Bart includes CDs (on the cutting edge when the show premiered in 1990) and Facebook (first seen being used by Lisa and her peers in Season 20, which ran in 2009).
- Missing Mom: Lampshaded as Darius, after telling his son Orion he's a clone, asks if Orion ever wondered why he doesn't have a mother.
- Noodle Incident: People have posted pictures of Homer online before, but apparently it's always for something bad, like leaving his dog in a parked car in the previous episode. In this episode, Homer references two other instances of someone posting a picture of him online for something bad but he gives very little context.Homer: Whoa, someone posted a picture of me, and it it's not for falling down an escalator or yelling at a parking meter.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Orion and his dad Darius is a fairly obvious take on Jaden Smith and his father Will Smith. The ending even says Orion is a clone of Darius, in a partial reference to Gemini Man.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bart fires a nasty one to Homer when the latter inadvertently makes a fool of him on the Internet:Bart: Don't ever talk to me again! What was I thinking, trusting you to help me look cool? You're the least cool person who ever lived.Homer: (gasps) But that includes Urkel!Bart: You're bald, you own a bowling ball, you own truck nuts but no truck, you've seen Tim Allen's standup multiple times, you still have a CD tower, and each one of your three kids is embarrassed by you in a different way!(Homer whimpers and looks at Lisa and Maggie, who shrug)Bart: (advancing angrily on Homer, who backs away in fear) You were born uncool and every day for four decades, you've gotten less cool!(Homer backs out of Bart's room and crashes into his above-mentioned CD tower.)Homer: I know I'm not exactly Stefan Urquelle, but didn't you ever think your old man was a little cool?Bart: Never. Not one bit!
- Rejected Apology: Homer tries to give Bart an apology card, but Bart won't accept it, still furious with Homer accidentally humiliating him.
- Shoddy Knockoff Product: Rather than buying Bart genuine Slipreme shoes, Homer buys some knockoffs while waiting in line. Bart walks outside with them, and they immediately disintegrate, having been made of garbage and old bandages.
- Shout-Out:
- To Family Matters, with Homer mentioning Stephan Urquelle when Bart calls him the most uncool person ever.
- To Gary Sinise, said to narrate an audio tour at the Museum of Aviation History.
- Take That!:
- Bart mentions that Homer has watched Tim Allen perform stand-up multiple times as proof that Homer's uncool.
- Facebook is derided by Bart as the "Old-Timers' Gazette." FYI, Facebook is another example of something that was considered cool when it was exclusive to young people, but then it was seen as uncool as the original users grew older and it caught on with still older users.
- Bart pointing out that Homer did something no old person is "remotely capable of doing"; he changed his mind.
- One jab is also made at the young generation's tendency to bail on plans: When Homer mentions that all of his uncool, middle-aged friends will be there for the sneaker release party, Bart brushes him off by saying that people who RSVP as "attending" on Facebook events usually never show up in the end. Homer then states "my generation shows up to things". Cue Scare Chord and a horrified Bart.
- Tempting Fate: Bart, who's just publicly humiliated himself by attempting to return a pair of shoes he didn't realize Homer bootlegged, tells Homer, "I've never been more embarrassed than I am right now!"...only for Homer to accidentally tear his pants off while trying to stop him from storming out.
- Truly Single Parent: Darius for Orion, who was cloned from his DNA and has no mother.
