The Boys of Bummer

"The Boys of Bummer" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 29, 2007. It was written by Michael Price and was the first episode to be directed by Rob Oliver.

"The Boys of Bummer"
The Simpsons episode
Barney emblazoned with "I Hate Bart Simpson".
Episode no.Season 18
Episode 18
Directed byRob Oliver
Written byMichael Price
Production codeJABF11
Original air dateApril 29, 2007
Episode features
Couch gagThe couch is replaced by four wooden chairs. An instrumental version of “Pop Goes the Weasel” plays as the family plays musical chairs. When the music stops, everyone except for Homer grabs a seat. Homer groans in disappointment.
Commentary

Plot

The Simpsons are at a Little League Baseball game and Bart catches a fly ball, pushing the Springfield Isotots into the championships. The next day, Marge is shopping at a department store, but Homer is tired and cannot find a place to sit - so he lies down on a mattress and falls asleep. When he wakes up, everybody is staring at him; he instantly exclaims his love for the mattress and manages to sell five. The store manager hires him as a mattress salesman.

Springfield is playing Shelbyville in the championship and leading 5-2 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, but Shelbyville has the bases loaded. When their batter hits a pop up towards Bart, he drops the ball and repeatedly fails to pick it up - letting all four runners score and thus giving Shelbyville the 6-5 victory. The crowd turns against Bart, who flees the stadium. Chief Wiggum offers him a ride to safety, but drives him back inside the stadium to let people throw food at him; Bart is humiliated and once again becomes the town's outcast.

At Homer's new job, the Lovejoys approach him with a sex problem, so Homer sells them a new mattress. The Lovejoys buy it, but bring it to the Simpsons house the next day with their problem unresolved. As Homer writes them a refund check, they begin making out on his and Marge's mattress, and trade their new mattress for it. That night, when Homer and Marge are unsuccessfully trying to have sex, Homer admits he traded their mattress.

Homer and Marge sneak in to the Lovejoys' home to steal back their mattress, but have sex on it until the Lovejoys return and catch them. Reverend Lovejoy solves the problem Solomon-style by cutting the mattress in half diagonally and gives one half to Homer and Marge. On the way Homer convinces Marge to drive behind a billboard where they try to have sex as they did on their honeymoon with the same bum watching them.

Bart's humiliation goes on as Bill and Marty tell everyone on the radio, and Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney sing a song about it called Bart Stinks, while the townspeople continue to mock and boo Bart. Lisa tries to cheer him up by taking him to see an old baseball star (Joe La Boot) who dropped a fly ball in the 1943 World Series but still grew up to be rich and famous, but after La Boot learns who Bart is, he makes everybody in the building boo him, making him cry. The next morning Lisa awakes to find a deranged Bart has spray-painted "I HATE BART SIMPSON" all over the town—including a water tower. As Bart hovers by the edge, he jumps. A shocked La Boot tries to catch him, but misses, and Bart is knocked unconscious.

He survives and is treated by Dr. Hibbert at a hospital. When the angry townspeople outside chant "Bart sucks!" over and over, Marge, who has had enough of Bart being treated so horribly, lambastes them for their actions. The entire town quickly apologizes to Bart and agree to do the game over. After 78 tries, Bart catches the ball, winning the game.

60 years later, a 70-year-old Milhouse nearly lets it slip to a 70-year-old Bart that the game was faked. Bart cries again, and the ghosts of Homer and Marge watch him taunt Milhouse.

Production

The episode was written by Michael Price. It was his sixth episode.[1] The episode features several cultural references. The "Bart Stinks" song that Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney sing is a parody of "Love Stinks" by The J. Geils Band, and when Bart notices this he rips down his J. Geils Band posters off his room wall in disappointment.[2] Bart spinning in a circle while his clothes fly off after having been hit by the ball is a reference to Charlie Brown in Peanuts.[2]

Reception

"The Boys of Bummer" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 29, 2007.[3] Since then, it has received generally mixed reviews from critics.

Adam Finley of TV Squad commented that "In general, I liked this episode. At least, it had a lot more laugh-out-loud moments for me than last week's episode. I don't think the town has turned on Bart so savagely since that time he cut the head off the Jebediah Springfield statue. I thought the absurdity of everyone getting upset over children's sport made it even funnier."[2] He concluded that "I thought perhaps the scene where Bart paints 'I Hate Bart Simpson' all over town might have had more of an emotional weight to it, giving the episode that nice funny/emotional balance that is the stuff of all the best Simpsons episodes, but clearly this episode was meant to be played mostly for laughs."[2]

IGN's Robert Canning was more critical, criticizing the episode for losing heart when "the residents of Springfield are all incredibly cruel to Bart for his error."[3] He added that the plot of the episode sounds "like a typical Simpsons storyline, and one the show is usually capable of pulling off with humor and heart, but the episode simply failed to find the funny in Bart's situation."[3] Canning further wrote that the subplot with Homer was "one of the dullest 'B' storylines The Simpsons have ever had," and "the flash-forward to 60 years in the future only made the episode worse."[3] He concluded: "This entire episode was poorly executed – it lacked all warmth, heart and humor."[3]

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References
  1. Barsky, Libby (2006-08-31). "D'oh winner". Courier News. p. B11.
  2. Finley, Adam (2007-04-29). "The Simpsons: The Boys of Bummer". TV Squad. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
  3. Canning, Robert (2007-04-30). "The Simpsons: 'The Boys of Bummer' Review". IGN. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
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