Original air date: 11/16/2003
Production code: EABF-20
In this loose parody of the musical Evita, Lisa is elected student body president, but is unaware that the school staff plans to use her to their own ends.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: School president's approval is needed to remove classes.
- Adam Westing: Controversial documentary maker and Simpsons fan Michael Moore, who has something of an appetite for accusations of factual flippancy, has a ten-second cameo appearance as himself, introduced as a "professional butt-in-ski" to offer rhetorical support to Lisa's student strike. He rather readily admits to Kent Brockman that he found his claim that "kids who don't have music and art are ten times more likely to fail in life and appear in one of [his] movies" from this source: "Your mother!" He also provides extensive commentary about the episode on the Season 15 DVD.
- Advertised Extra: At least one TV guide describes the episode's plot as, "Michael Moore supports Lisa's cause when she stages a revolt at school," but he only appears as a cameo with a few lines and does nothing for the plot. (Additionally, the revolt only happens in the third act of the episode.)
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Willie drinks on the job, drives his tractor while being "so drunk he can barely see", and soon winds up falling in the school swimming pool.
- Artistic License – Law: On a similar vein to Grade-School C.E.O. being unrealistic, there is no real way whatsoever that Skinner's plan of using Lisa as the Fall Guy for his corner cutting would fly; in real life, school presidents cannot do anything regarding the manipulation of school funding (especially the removal of classes). Of course, Springfield runs on the Rule of Funny.
- Blatant Lies: On advice from their lawyers, the people responsible for the episode swear they have never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Perón.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Nelson tries winning the Presidential election by offering answer keys to the students, but he loses support once Lisa makes an impassioned song encouraging people to vote for someone who will actually fix the school’s problems rather than helping them cheat.
- Brick Joke: Part of Willie’s Oblivious Mockery of Milhouse is that he confides everything in the former. Later, Milhouse decides to tell Willie about his day.
- Briefcase Full of Money: When Homer was trying to cash his winnings at the school casino, he declared he wanted half of it in cash and the other half in cases to carry it.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Skinner sings a song called "Evil Plan" while slashing programs from the school budget.
- Charity Ball: The "casino" version. Gone Horribly Wrong because none of the adults cared to read the ads Martin had sent out well in advance and didn't know the casino didn't hand out money prizes—and their reaction to finding this out (thanks to Homer getting angry when he found out) was to erupt into a riot and smash everything is what starts the whole plot.
- Comical Overreacting/Disproportionate Retribution: All the adults didn't take it well when Martin Prince revealed that the school casino was fake. To make it worse, Martin was forced to resign as class president while Skinner had to deal with the rental company whose equipment the adults trashed.
- Continuity Nod: When interviewed about the student strike, Bart revives (and expands) his "Skinner is a nut, he has a rubber butt" chant from "Lisa's Sax," making it about Lisa instead.
- Cutting Corners: Skinner decides to do just that, removing various study subjects and making Lisa the fall girl for the deed.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: When Martin is telling Homer that the casino isn't real, he ends up announcing it to everyone there. In his defense however, he thought that it was only Homer who thought it was real.
- Didn't Think This Through: Martin gets the idea for the school to run a fake casino from an episode of Saved by the Bell but doesn't consider it may end the same way.
- Did You Die?: Willie tells Skinner and Chalmers a story about when he worked in a coal mine which collapsed, saying "No one made it out alive. Not even Willie!"
- Dirty Coward: Skinner for using Lisa as The Scapegoat for his budget cuts.
- Dissimile: Marge compares Lisa, once installed as president, to "Geraldine Ferraro... except she lost."
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Exaggerated. Homer shoots down all of Lisa's dreams, starting with going to a better school by arrangement with Skinner and Chalmers, because he is too lazy to want to perform any supporting actions.
- Hidden Depths: Otto and Krusty were class president of Springfield Elementary at different times.
- Kick the Dog:
- Homer's responsible for the riot that happened in the charity casino. He also refuses to drive 45 minutes to take Lisa to a magnet school.
- Skinner manipulates Lisa into giving permission to be the scapegoat for his budget cuts.
- Groundskeeper Willie is pretty awful in this episode, threatening to throw sparkplugs at Homer if they go to the park, making fun of Milhouse in the teacher's lounge.
- Late To The Realisation: It takes Chalmers mocking him for Nelson to realise that he didn’t win the election.
- Makeover Montage: The school faculty gives Lisa one upon being elected, and as a parody of "Rainbow High," no less!Teachers: Nails, dimples, ears, scrunchie
Purse, lunchbox, teeth, Milhouse!
(Milhouse in a tux extends his arm to Lisa, who gives him a suspicious glare) - Manipulative Bastard: Skinner, who gets Martin to retire as student body president, has Lisa elected in his place and uses her as a scapegoat to get away with his Evil Plan.
- Misplaced Retribution:
- Everyone blames Skinner for the budget cutbacks because he's the one who has to make them, ignoring the school's ridiculously low budget, the government's constant budget cuts and the adults of Springfield refusing even minor tax increases to actually keep the school running properly.
- Martin is blamed for the disastrous casino night, even though it was the attendants' fault for not realizing that an elementary school (especially one as bad as Springfield Elementary) wouldn't be running a real casino.
- Musical Episode: From the moment Lisa accepts to run, the whole episode turns into a musical. Even Skinner gloating about his evil plan is done in a song called, well, "Evil Plan".
- Never a Self-Made Woman: When Marge saw how Lisa was dressed up, she said Lisa looked successful and compared her to "the wife of a businessman."
- Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Ends with a disclaimer that, on the advice of their lawyers, the makers have never heard of a musical about Eva Peron.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Marge as Bart sarcastically complimented Lisa for her actions as Student Council President.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the songs has Lisa saying "Let's Olsen-twin me."
- Martin mentions that his idea for the fake casino was based off an episode of Saved by the Bell (probably a fictional one). Of course, the fact that the exact same thing (people rioting when it's discovered that they didn't really win anything) happened on the Saved by the Bell episode didn't clue Martin about how the adults would react...
- Song Parody: Being a parody of Evita, this episode features parodies of several songs from said musical.
- "Don't Vote For Me, Kids of Springfield" is a parody of "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina"
- "I Am Their Queen" is a parody of "Rainbow High"
- "Skinner's Evil Plan" is a parody of "Rainbow Tour"
- "A Tango Takes Two" is a parody of "Waltz for Eva and Che"
- Status Quo Is God: Skinner and Chalmers end the strike by sending Lisa to a magnet school. Just as Otto comments that the story has a happy ending, Homer abruptly drives up and protests against this development.Homer: I'm not driving 45 minutes a day! You can't go to that school!
- Too Dumb to Live: All the adults assumed that a casino run by children would have legitimate cash. They didn't even think to look at the flyer that was sent out.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: After the Casino night, Homer is basically sidelined into doing non sequitur until the end, when he pulls Lisa out of the magnet school.
- Villain Song: Well, partially. During Lisa's big number, we get snippets of "Evil Plan" sung by Skinner revealing his true intent to manipulate her.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Skinner wants to lower Springfield Elementary School's budget. A worthy endeavor, that. How does he plan to carry this out? By removing gym, music and art from the school's curriculum. Right, that won't hurt the kids at all.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Martin disappears after the Casino Night fiasco.
- Nelson also stops making any further appearances after he loses the election.
- Averted with the eventual main plot, as a caption confirms that the school generated the funding to restore the creative arts by cancelling flu shots.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- When Homer was trying to cash in his winnings at the casino, he threatened Martin, saying "You think I won't manhandle a little boy?!".
- The repo man simply laugh at Milhouse's pain after they take the gym equipment away, complete with one of them literally taking the gym mat from under him just before landing.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Groundskeeper Willie won't turn the hose on the kids, he'd sooner turn it on himself.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Lisa is transferred to a much better school by Skinner to get rid of the student strike leadership and Lisa is okay with it... but she never so much as puts a foot in the school because Homer stops in front of her, says that there is no way he will let her study here because he will not drive an extra half an hour every day to get her to the campus, and takes her away.
