YMMV / The Simpsons S9 E3 "Lisa's Sax"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: When Homer takes Lisa to the music store, he names a few instruments; "vio-ma-lin", "tuba-ma-ba", "oboe-mo-boe", and "saxo-ma-phone". Was this Homer not knowing how to pronounce the instruments properly or was he just making cute baby talk to Lisa?
• Broken Base: Some call it a cute, heartwarming episode with an awesome ending to boot, while other can't get past Bart's sad subplot (If somebody hates this episode, chances are that will be the reason) and despise the character pampering Lisa is given in it.
• Common Knowledge: Bart's Start of Darkness is usually attributed to being bullied by his kindergarten teacher, with many fans suggesting that she is the entire reason that much of the series happened to begin with. Except, while she is a hugely unpleasant Jerkass to him, it's actually stated by both Marge and Dr. Pryor that Bart's struggles are caused by his inability to fit in at school in general, rather than because of him being specifically tormented by one person. Bart is never even shown interacting with her directly on his first day.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: While Homer giving up the air conditioner he badly wants to buy Lisa a saxophone twice, once in the flashback and again at the ending, provides a bright spot, the episode shows the origins of problems that still plague the characters in the show's present; as Bart and Lisa point out, Bart is still miserable at school and Lisa's gifts are still going to waste.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Marge tries to cheer Bart up by reading Curious George and the Ebola Virus. A Robot Chicken skit would later show George inadvertently causing an outbreak of Ebola.
  • The Season 24 episode "Black-Eyed, Please" would similarly pit Lisa against a Sadist Teacher who hates her for no reason she can fathom. When Lisa properly declares her teacher a bully, Marge is shocked by the idea that it's possible for a teacher to treat a student that way and even goes to the school board to try to get the teacher removed, which emphasizes the fact that she and Homer never got the full story of what happened to Bart and simply believed that he was having difficulty adjusting, hence their attempts to fix Bart rather than address the negative influence.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The jab at the WB network. The network would go on to produce a number of hit shows, especially the likes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Wayans Bros., and some of its still-in-production shows would be carried over to its successor, The CW.
• Misblamed: Many felt that Bart's unhappiness at school was shoved aside in favour of nurturing Lisa's gift. While the episode supports this to an extent, it's not really Lisa's fault as she was a toddler at the time and not consciously trying to steal their parents' attention.
• Padding: The montage of Lisa playing the sax was added because the episode ran short.
• The Woobie: It's very easy to feel bad for Bart in this episode. In the beginning of the flashback, he was very eager and enthusiastic about going to school. But when he got there, his teacher wrote him off as a lost cause and was cold and condescending to him for no apparent reason other than sheer malice, which briefly made Bart contemplate suicide. Fortunately, Homer and Marge at least tried to get therapeutic help for him... until they decided to focus their attention Lisa and her gifts, with Homer calling Bart a lost cause.

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