Trivia / The Simpsons S1 E2 "Bart the Genius"

• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The image of Skinner describing things as "pathetic"◊ is a popular meme. However, in that particular shot, Skinner doesn't say anything. The "pathetic" is a reference to a scene from End of Evangelion, where Asuka says the line while holding a similar pose◊.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • In February 1991, in an interview, Jon Vitti described this as his favorite among the episodes he wrote to that point.
  • James L. Brooks named this episode as one of his favourites, saying that "we did things with animation when that happened that just opened doors for us."
• Defictionalization: Kwyijibo may now well be a legal Scrabble word, as it's the name of a mine in Quebec, Canada.
• First Appearance: Martin Prince, Mrs. Krabappel, J. Loren Pryor, Richard, and Ms. Mellon.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the original script, Doctor Pryor would have recommended to Martin's parents that he be sent to a school for kids with learning disabilities.
  • As mentioned in the trivia of "Some Enchanted Evening", the show would have been canceled if this episode's animation didn't improve.
• Write What You Know: The idea of Bart cheating on an IQ test was based on an incident from Jon Vitti's childhood when a number of his classmates did not take an intelligence test seriously and suffered poor academic treatment because of it. Because Bart was already obviously unintelligent, Vitti reversed the problem for his episode.

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