Welcome to The Simpsons Greatest Hits, my never-ending quest to find the greatest episode of The Simpsons. Please come find me on twitter @FirsttoLastpod and let me know what is the best episode, and keep a look out for it on this weekly column.
Lisa’s Subsitute
Season 2/Episode 32 overall
First aired: 25 April 1991
Written by Jon Vitti
“You, sir, are a baboon!”
Age has been kind to this episode. I saw this a million times as a kid, and I always knew that it was a sad ending, but it wasn’t until I rewatched it tonight as a 34-year-old man that I saw how utterly heartbreaking it is.
In the Bart Sells His Soul episode, I raved about Nancy Cartwright and her voicework with Bart, but in Lisa’s Substitute, Yeardley Smith gives her a run for her money. The final scene in which Mr. Bergstrom (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) leaves her behind as he goes off to work in the projects of Capital City is gut-wrenchingly sad, and Smith really sells the sense of betrayal and heartbreak that Lisa is going through as she is forced to realise that Bergstrom is leaving for a good cause.
She also manages to make Lisa yelling at Homer that he is a baboon become both a very funny punchline but also the catharsis the episode needed, since this was definitely a Homer is a jerk-type episode.
“More Asbestos! More Asbestos! More Asbestos!”
The B-plot in which Bart runs for class president against Martin Prince seems quite prescient in the current political climate. Watching a troublemaking, attention-seeking, sociopath roll over the dedicated and committed candidate to get popular support by saying the right/wrong things is a little bit too real for comfort these days.
However, this plotline does provide a lot of the episode’s laughs. Lisa’s story has a lot of humour, but Bart’s story is great for countering the subtlety of her story with big punchlines, a great campaign montage, and Bart firing on all cylinders.
“Just because I don’t care, doesn’t mean I don’t understand.”
To circle back, the final few scenes of this episode are what makes it a strong contender for the best ever. Throughout the episode scaffolds the relationship between Lisa and Mr. Bergstrom with a perfect grasp of pace so, by the time we reach the tearful conclusion, the viewer completely feels what Lisa is going through.
And this is especially felt because the episode piles on the scenes of Homer being an insensitive jerk. An example of how much Homer is a complete polar opposite to Bergstrom’s sensitivity and charm is Homer berating a museum worker for the museum’s stupidity in expecting anyone to give a charitable donation if they don’t have to.
Homer’s character throughout the whole show veers between sweet and stupid or brash and a jerk. He can be incredibly frustrating and annoying or lovable and pathetic or a mix of both, and the trick is when the show can thread the needle with his swinging personality. “Lisa’s Substitute” is a perfect example of how he can be a jerk for 90% of the runtime, only to pull it together and become the mature-ish father figure that Lisa needs.
In conclusion, this is a fantastic episode of The Simpsons which manages to show that when the show was great, it was one of the best things on TV. “Lisa’s Substitute” is well-acted, well-written, and has a perfect finale.
Overall Score: 5 Singing Dorks out of 5
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