Comic Book Guy travels to Comicalooza, a comic book convention. He resolves to ask the perfect question, which will get Marvel to hire him. He thinks he's come up with that perfect question, but when the crucial moment comes, he chokes and can't find the index card he wrote the question on. However, he does get a job offer from DC, which he turns down as a "hard pass."
A voice actor fills in for Comic Book Guy at the comic book store. The voice actor brings Bart along with him for a voice over audition for the animated show Cookie Castle. Bart impresses the casting agent with his inconsistent British accent, and gets a part as a princess on the show.
Somehow, Bart failed to realize that his character is a woman, predictably leading to attacks from the school bullies. But in the next episode of Cookie Castle, the princess is crowned queen and is given a fire-breathing flying unicorn, which she uses to maim and kill several people. This changes the bullies' opinion of Bart.
Meanwhile, Lisa becomes smitten with a boy who, like her, plays saxophone and is a vegetarian. But it was just part of a ruse to sabotage her at the audition for first chair saxophone in the school band.
This episode provides examples of:
- Acting in the Dark: In-Universe, Bart did not know he was going to be playing a princess, which may have been withheld from him or changed late in the process. This caused some embarrassment, at least until she was made into a queen with a unicorn that starts stabbing people.
- Actor Allusion: Two for Nancy Cartwright.
- Bart does a perfect Nelson Muntz impersonation; no surprise, since Nelson is also voiced by Cartwright. He also claims to be able to do an impersonation of Todd Flanders (another character voiced by Nancy Cartwright), but doesn't feel like doing someone so boring.
- The fact that Bart is voicing a female character reverses the situation of Cartwright voicing a male character.
- All-Star Cast: In-universe; Cookie Castle boasts an impressive cast of Meghan Markle, Leonardo DiCaprio, Phil Muhlstock (the voice actor Bart met at the comic book store), Daniel Radcliffe, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, Judi Dench, Bill Murray, and of course Bart Simpson as Jules.
- And Starring: Bart's billing in Cookie Castle. Apparently Homer negotiated for it in place of having an on-set teacher.
- As Himself: Paul Rudd.
- Bittersweet Ending: All three plots end this way.
- Comic Book Guy is depressed by blowing it at Comicpalooza, but is picked up after a brief interaction with Ralph.
- Lisa loses the spot of first chair, but consoles herself by playing for herself at the mall, also cheering up the people there.
- Bart is upset that his character is a princess, until she starts decapitating people and setting fire to a field of fruits and vegetables.
- Continuity Nod: In the post-credits scene, at a late night jazz session Lisa plays at, Marge still can't enjoy her music.
- Creator Cameo: Matt Groening is among the crowd passing by Comic Book Guy as he reviews his questions on a park bench.
- Crosscast Role: Bart ends up voicing a princess. Ironic considering he's already played by a woman.
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: In-universe. At Comicpalooza, one fan asks if Superman represented the subconscious desire of the creators to defeat the Nazi menace. The entire crowd cheers at the magnificence of his question, and the Marvel crew hires him on the spot.
- Fantasy Twist: Homer imagines himself floating in a giant mug of beer with a donut as an inner tube. The donut falls apart when he takes a chunk out of it and he winds up drowning in the beer.
- Funny Background Event: While Homer and Marge talk about Lisa, Maggie can be seen playing Five-Finger Fillet with her pacifier, even pretending to have cut off her finger.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: To Bart's delight, Princess Jules goes on a violent rampage after being crowned queen.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Lisa, about Milhouse.
- Humiliation Conga: The whole point of the episode. Bart, Lisa and Comic Book Guy each have a chance to fulfill a dream, only to have it go wrong somehow.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: In-universe. Phil Muhlstock perfectly imitates Don Corleone, Comic Book Guy, Itchy, Doc Brown, and Michael Caine.
- Negative Continuity:
- Itchy and Scratchy have a new voice actor, though it's possible that June Bellamy either passed away or retired.
- Also, Bart claims he didn't know real people did the voices for cartoons, even though his own father once did the voice for Poochie when the latter was a character on The Itchy and Scratchy Show.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Bart can't keep up an accent when voicing Princess Jules; she has an exaggerated British accent one scene and Bart's normal American accent the next.Kearney: Bart plays a girl! Bart plays a girl!
Dolph: And his accent's inconsistent! - Production Lead Time: Parodied. Bart is surprised that the cartoon he's doing voices for airs the next day, and is told that animation really takes that long, and those that take longer are just mooching from the studio.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Blake shows his true colors (literally) when he takes off his blue contact lenses to reveal red irises.
- Shout-Out to Brendan Fraser: A man who's been going to conventions since 1975 remembers amazing things like people getting in line to meet Brendan Fraser.
- Twinkle Smile: When Blake first catches Lisa's eye, he smiles to her and his braces gleam.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What position Lisa ends up getting in the band, or if she even got a spot at all, is ultimately not brought up beyond her being passed over by Blake as first chair.
- Wingding Eyes: Lisa's pupils turn into music notes when she first notices Blake holding a saxophone case.
