Recap / The Simpsons S5 E7 "Bart's Inner Child"

Original air date: 11/11/1993

Production code: 1F05

After Homer gets a trampoline for the backyard (and nearly every kid in town ends up injured from it), Marge feels that she's a bossy nag who doesn't know how to have any fun, so she listens to a supposed self-help guru named Brad Goodman, who begins using Bart as a role model on how people should act.

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Tropes of this episode:

• Aborted Declaration of Love:
  Smithers: Sir, in the spirit of the festival and everything I — I'd just like to say that... I love you.
  Mr. Burns: Hmm?
  Smithers: ...Uh, in those colors!
• Aesop Amnesia: Lampshaded and highly played with. At the end of the episode, Homer goes on about how it is Bart's fault in that he should have been a better role model, while Marge exclaims that self-improvement is "meant only for those in big cities" and decides to go back to her killjoy demeanor believing it's the right thing to do ("I knew if only I had nagged more"), when Lisa pushes through their nonsense that self-improvement is a lot of hard work and long investment of self-discovery. Homer emphasizes in Lisa's insight in that's what he means in that everyone is fine the way they are, and is further reinforced when he corrects himself after Lisa comes to tell him to settle down when watching McGarnagle.
• The Alcoholic: To Springfield's long list we may add Troy McClure, who Brad Goodman claims was improved by his help because he got down to one drink from "more than 50."
  Troy McClure: A few weeks ago, I was a washed-up actor with a drinking problem. Then Brad Goodman came along and gave me this job and a can of fortified wine. (sips) Ahh! Sweet liquor eases the pain.
• Artifact of Doom: The trampoline. Its sinister nature is implied with how eager Krusty is to get rid of it (and how he pulls a shotgun on Homer when he tries to return it) and shown in full force when it injures every person who uses it.
• As Himself: James Brown.
• As You Know:
  Homer: Well, here we are at the Brad Goodman lecture.
  Lisa: We know, Dad.
  Homer: I just thought I'd remind everybody. After all, we did agree to attend this self-help seminar.
  Bart: What an odd thing to say.
• Big Damn Heroes: Homer tries to do this by helping Bart escape inside a parade float. The disguise is quickly blown, though they make it anyway, as the townspeople got bored and decided to go to the old mill to get cider.
• Blatant Lies: After Marge admits that she never realized people saw her as a nag, Lisa timidly asks Marge if she's mad upon discovering what she and the rest of the family really think of her—Marge claims that she's fine, but she's clearly very angry and offended to learn that people see her that way.
• The Bore: Homer calls out Marge on this: while Homer admits that Marge was right in that getting the trampoline was ultimately a mistake, he also points out that he's at least willing to go out and try new things and retorts, "If it were up to you, all we'd ever do is work and go to church." Marge, of course, denies this claim, but when he asks her to name one thing she's done in the past month that was even remotely fun, all Marge can think of is a time when she made sloppy joes (which Homer scoffs isn't fun). The episode ends with her deciding that being a boring, nagging, meddling woman is correct (or at least less complicated).
• Borrowed Catchphrase:
  Apu: (skateboarding with his family) Cowabunga!
  Bart: Skateboards? You copycat wannabes. (He's hit by an acorn from above.)
  Skinner: (in a tree with a slingshot) Eat my shorts, young man!
• Both Sides Have a Point (combined with Dumbass Has a Point): This is what sets off the episode's main plot. To go intro greater detail:
  • First, Homer admits that Marge was right in that getting the trampoline was a bad idea, as she had expressed concerns about the potential dangers when Homer first brought it home.
  • But then Homer raises a good point in that it's important to go out and try new things and experiences, as being like Marge (a bossy, boring nag who never does anything new) isn't exactly a better way of living.
  • Then, by the end of the episode, when Do What You Feel Day progresses, everyone is initially having fun, until instances of crudeness and selfishness increases to the point where the day just turns into complete chaos. The lesson is: yes, you should have time to do as you feel, but there is a point to control and being in tune with yourself for the benefit of everyone else around you, as complete abandon tends to ruin everyone else's day.
• Brick Joke: One of the adverts in the Free Column is for sixty soiled mattresses. A few minutes later, Homer fantasies about Homerland, which features, among other things, a fort made of mattresses. When Milhouse complains that it smells funny in there, Homer cheerfully replies, "No it doesn't."
• The Chosen One: Bart Simpson becomes Springfield's role model. Before long, he finds that being everybody's role model isn't what it's cracked up to be.
• Clingy MacGuffin: The trampoline. Homer couldn't return it to Krusty, and when he tried to throw it from a cliff, it hit a rock, and it bounced back directly on top of him.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • After the Goodman lecture:
    Lisa: This is madness. He's just peddling a bunch of easy answers!
    Carl: (with an armful of Goodman's books) And how!
  • As the family struggle to find An Aesop:
    Homer: Aw, boy. If only Bart had been a better role model for everyone.
    Marge: That's not fair. The lesson here is that self-improvement is better left to people who live in big cities.
    Lisa: No! Self-improvement can be achieved, but not with a quick fix. It's a long, arduous journey of personal and spiritual discovery.
    Homer: That's what I've been saying! We're all fine the way we are!
• Continuity Nod: In the spirit of the movement, Homer wears his bathrobe from "Homer the Heretic" to the Do What You Feel festival.
• Control Freak: Homer accuses Marge of being this, and after asking Bart and Lisa what they think of her, they present her with a nagging montage.
• Couch Gag: The family find an obese man taking up the entire couch and try to squeeze in with him.
• Cowboy Cop: McGarnagle.
  Da Chief: You busted up that crack house pretty bad, McGarnagle. Did you really have to break so much furniture?
  McGarnagle: You tell me, Chief. You had a pretty good view from behind your desk.
  Chief: You're off the case, McGarnagle!
  McGarnagle: You're off your case, Chief!
  Chief: What does that mean exactly?
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: This episode calls out Marge's Rightly Self-Righteous nature. After nagging Homer and giving him the cold shoulder after obtaining a trampoline leads to countless injuries, Homer finally snaps back, noting that though she was right that the trampoline was a bad idea, her no-thrills nature is no healthier a lifestyle (not to mention her excessive strictness/nagging makes her come off as very insufferable), which rather stirs her. The reason she decides to embrace Status Quo Is God at the end is simply that she assumes that being an insufferable nag would have prevented a citywide riot somehow (and that she doesn't want to put any effort into self-improvement than Bart and Homer do).
• The Dissenter Is Always Right: Lisa is the only one skeptical of Goodman.
• Evil Laugh: Upon giving up on getting rid of the trampoline, Homer says it'll rust and gives this kind of laughter. Krusty also does it after telling Homer the trampoline is all his.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: Because Groundskeeper Willie failed to oil the Ferris wheel, the Ferris wheel falls off and breaks the city zoo door open, which leads to the animals in it escaping.
• Fan Disservice: Patty and Selma ride horseback naked, but the townspeople are all disgusted by it (except the Sea Captain).
• Faux-To Guide: Troy McClure introduces himself on Adjusting Your Self-O-Stat with "You might remember me from such self-help videos as Smoke Yourself Thin and Get Confident, Stupid."
• Flashback... Back... Back...: Played straight when Marge watches the video of Brad Goodman ending on the symptom "Chronic nagging... nagging... nagging", then it's parodied when Selma says that her and Patty's TV is on the fritz.
  Selma: Sorry, it does that sometimes. (pounds the TV with a fist)
• Flat "What": Lisa can only say a disbelieving "What" when she hears Goodman calling Bart a perfect role model.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Despite Marge saying nobody gives away anything good in the newspaper, on either side of the Free Trampoline ad, people are offering "Greatful Dead" [sic] tickets, a flame thrower, and a nuclear bomb.
• Fully Automatic Clip Show: When Marge asks Bart and Lisa whether they agree with what Homer said about her being a boring nag, they're a little hesitant but ultimately agree with their father's assessment — the show even cuts to clips from previous episodes (such as "Homer the Heretic", "Dog of Death," and "Colonel Homer") which prove that Marge's main function is to ruin everyone else's fun by nagging at them.
• A God Am I: Bart feels like this... until Lisa points out that he's sitting on an ice cream sandwich and later when he becomes sick of everyone acting like him.
• Gone Horribly Right: Goodman's teaching was, in a nutshell, being more like Bart in the sense of "Don't worry too much about life." Not only does all of Springfield takes it up to eleven (more like "Don't give a shit about anything, even the stuff that can endanger people if you don't give a shit"), but start to imitate Bart's mannerisms (which gives him a short identity crisis) and decides to blame Goodman (to the point he appears to be worshiped like a false God in a quick gag) and Bart when everything goes pear-shaped because of said irresponsibility.
• Hapless Self-Help: The family encounter Brad Goodman, a self-help guru who brings chaos to Springfield by teaching them to embrace Bart's indifference.
  Marge: The lesson here is that self-improvement is better left to people who live in big cities.
• The Hedonist: Folowing Bart's saying of "I do what I feel like", Springfield citizens takes it as just do whatever they want to do without caring on doing any duties or jobs properly.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Done by Troy McClure, who, as mentioned above, is The Alcoholic.
  "Doctor, you've cured all my problems!" (immediately downs a glass of liquor and then uses his finger to chase out the last few drops)
• Incredibly Lame Fun: When Homer challenges Marge to name something fun she's done in the past month, she comes up with having made sloppy joes... which he asserts was simply not fun.
• Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Bart soon finds himself annoyed that everyone is acting like him, since he is no longer a rebel among normal people.
  Skinner: [After hitting Bart with a slingshot] Eat my shorts, young man.
• It's All My Fault: Marge decides to go back to her killjoy demeanor in the aftermath of "Do What You Feel Day" becoming a disaster, thinking it could have prevented the whole mess.
  Marge: I knew if only I had nagged more.
• I Warned You:
  • As Marge predicted, getting the trampoline was a bad idea (as a bunch of people end up getting seriously hurt), — Homer later admits that Marge was right about the trampoline affair but also points out that her way of life isn't exactly a better alternative. At the climax, while she sees that people "doing as they feel" (incorrectly, mind) has led to a riot, she mutters "If only I had nagged more..."
  • Lisa was the only one not impressed by Goodman's theories. When things start to go wrong for Bart, she looks very smug.
• Jerkass Has a Point: After the Simpsons' experience with trampoline ownership turns into a disaster, Marge berates Homer for it and points out that she warned him of the potential dangers. But Homer turns it on her by noting that while she may have been right about the trampoline being dangerous, he's at least willing to go out and try new things/experiences—Marge, on the other hand, never does anything of the sort, and Homer says that if everyone lived like her, they'd just do the same things all the time (like work and go to church). The kids, albeit with nervous shame, side with Homer about Marge's buzzkill tendencies, but this only made Marge very upset.
• Karma Houdini: Brad Goodman doesn't face any consequence for instigating the people of Springfield into being destructive pranksters like Bart. Then again, he doesn't appear again after the end of the second act.
• Lazy Artist: During James Brown's live performance of "I Feel Good," the band behind him is completely static even though they are playing their instruments (i.e. no sliding trombones, no drumsticks moving, etc.) The only time they actually move is when they react to the bandstand collapsing.
• Long List: Brad Goodman's "feel-bad rainbow":
  Brad Goodman: Depression, insomnia, motor mouth [which is how he's talking at the time], darting eyes, indecisiveness, decisiveness, uncontrollable falling down, geriatric profanity disorder (or GPD), and chronic nagging.
• Low-Speed Chase: Homer and Bart escaping in the parade float. It devolves to the point the angry mob just gets bored and leaves.
  Skinner: Damn! They're very slowly getting away!
• Malaproper: Homer gets so excited at the prospect of getting a free trampoline that he can't even pronounce it coherently.
  Homer: Tramampoline! Trabopoline! (rushes out of the house)
  Bart: He said what now?
• Misplaced Retribution: The townsfolk blame Bart and chase him around town when the "Do What You Feel" policy ends up causing chaos, even though Brad Goodman was the one who encouraged them to act like Bart in the first place (with Reverend Lovejoy himself pointing it out).
• Mondegreen Gag: At Goodman's lecture, when touting Bart's philosophy as one to emulate, he encourages the townspeople to "Be like boy!" and repeat that phrase after him. When he calls on some senior citizens including Abe to do so, they say, "We like Roy!"
• Never My Fault: When chaos ensues in the "Do What You Feel" festival because some folks "didn't feel" like doing their job, nobody insists on the fact that they should have done their job regardless or accept that they goofed, they all just point the blame elsewhere. This was shown when Apu says that Bart is at fault, so the townspeople all try to catch him for this. Even when Reverend Lovejoy pointed out earlier that Brad Goodman is the one to blame as he was the one who convinced the townspeople to act like Bart in the first place, the townspeople refused to accept this as they still want to get Bart.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Brad Goodman is a parody of motivational guru John Bradshaw.
• Noodle Incident:
  • After Smithers' Aborted Declaration of Love, he says to himself, "Oh, who am I kidding? The boathouse was the time!" What Burns and Smithers were doing in a boathouse, and why that would've been the perfect time to tell him he loves him, is anyone's guess.
  • The "Do as We Say" festival(s), from which the "Do What You Feel" festival is supposed to be a major departure. The only information we get about "Do as We Say" is that it was started in 1946 by German settlers.
  • As Homer rushes out to get the free trampoline, Marge calls out "Please, don't bring home any more old crutches!"
• Oh, Crap!: Bart lets out a flat "Eep" before everyone chases him.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Groundskeeper Willie, speaking his mind at the Do What You Feel Like festival.
  Willie: If elected mayor, me first act will be to kill the lot of ya, and burn yer town to cinders!
• Only Sane Man: Lisa, as usual, as she is the only one who see beforehand what everyone acting like Bart could end like.
• Papa Wolf: Homer at least tries a daring rescue when the townspeople turn on Bart. It works, but more from lack of motivation on the angry mob's part.
• Precision F-Strike:
  Kent Brockman: Folks are finally accepting their feelings and really communicating, with no holding back, and this reporter thinks it's about [bleep]ing time!
• Reverse Psychology: Bart manages to get rid of the trampoline by chaining it to a post and waiting until somebody steals it—Snake Jailbird steals just seconds after Bart chains it up.
• Scenery Censor: A bunch of balloons conceal Patty and Selma's nudity.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Homer and Bart instigate a Low-Speed Chase with a parade float, the townspeople just lose interest and walk off grumbling.
• Shout-Out:
  • Homer dropping the trampoline from a canyon is a homage to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
  • McGarnagle is a loose-cannon Cowboy Cop in the style of Dirty Harry. He even looks and sounds like Clint Eastwood.
  • The quick gag with the Brad Goodman bronze statue surrounded by female worshippers when Reverend Lovejoy calls him a "false god" resembles The Ten Commandments.
  • Likewise, the shot when Marge looks out over all the children who have been injured by the trampoline is an homage to Gone with the Wind.
  • At Do What You Feel, Patty and Selma ride horses in the nude à la Lady Godiva, albeit without hair of her length.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Otto, who dislocated his shoulder on the trampoline. Fortunately, Bart's able to pop it back into place, but then he's upset that he lost his turn. Wendell then breaks his arm to a disturbing noise, as well.
• Skewed Priorities: Homer potentially kills someone backing out of their driveway because he believes that they're off to get the trampoline he wants.
• Sleeps in the Nude: After the trampoline is stolen, Homer is sitting in bed at night in his pajamas and talks to an irritated Marge, who's wrapped up in the bedsheet. But when Homer accuses Marge of not being more willing to try new things, Marge sits up and faces him in denial, revealing herself to be bare naked under the sheet◊. Oddly, her collar can be seen in closeup shots.◊
• Snake Oil Salesman: As per Lisa, Brad Goodman is just selling a bunch of easy answers.
• So Long, Suckers!: The classic getaway one-liner, uttered by Homer as he and Bart are escaping in the parade float, falls pretty flat as it turns out the float is so painfully slow that everybody loses interest in trying to chase it down.
• Taken Off the Case: Used in a Dirty Harry type film that Homer watches on TV:
  Chief: You're off the case, McGarnagle!
  McGarnagle: You're off your case, Chief.
  Chief: [confused] What does that mean, exactly?
  Homer: [watching] It means he gets results, you stupid chief!
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: After watching the self-help video, Homer and Marge try to communicate by just saying how they are feeling instead of actually making a scene.
  Homer: Marge, I'm feeling a lot of shame right now.
  Marge: I'm hearing that you feel a lot of shame.
  Homer: And I feel that you hear my shame.
• Totally Radical: Bart's image in early-'90s pop culture can be seen as this, even though this was never really part of his persona in the actual show (his skateboarding in the opening sequence perhaps being the closest he ever came). The episode parodied this phenomenon, right down to the quoting of "Cowabunga". When popular perception of the show began to focus more on Homer's antics, this aspect subsided.
• Would Hurt a Child: The climax has the whole town chasing after Bart, blaming him for the whole mess. They let go of the rage as fast as they catch it and go off to get some cider from the old mill, but regardless, for a couple of minutes, they were all willing to lynch a ten-year-old boy because some other guys decided to do their jobs lazily.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Lisa has this reaction when Brad Goodman says that Bart is the ideal child.
• You Might Remember Me from...: In-Universe. Troy McClure's other self-help videos include Smoke Yourself Thin and Get Confidence, Stupid!

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