QUICK SYNOPSIS

Lisa fears she is losing her intelligence when she learns about the fabled Simpson gene. Meanwhile, Jasper freezes himself in the Kwik-E-Mart freezer.

POINTLESS GUEST STAR(S)

Not a one.

WHY THIS EPISODE SUCKS

This episode doesn’t suck, but it’s yet another holdover from Season 8 when times were innocent and we didn’t have Marge belting out jokes like “IT’S A BEMUSEMENT PARK!” This is one of those touching, coming-of-age Lisa episodes where she learns that being herself is ok (especially since getting dumb is not in her future) even if she has to be a Simpson at the same time. The arc starts off early in the episode with the puzzle on the box, Grampa scares her with an off-the-cuff remark, and the episode resolves with an ending that is actually clever and makes sense. The Freezer Jasper side story is a little dumb, but we get a few good lines out of it (“Moon Pie? What an age we live in.”) Get in a few jokes about how Homer/Bart = dumb, add in some satisfying sight gags, and a scene with Troy McClure, and you have a recipe for an episode that would proudly nestle within the classic era.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

Listed as episode 3 of season 9 on Disney+
I dropped this one here in case anyone was wondering why I covered “Lisa the Simpson” so early. Now you know.

When Lisa holds up the puzzle on the back of her lunch (near the beginning of the episode), press the number 6 on your DVD remote to unlock a full episode length commentary from Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. They discuss their time spent working on the show, and address a few important issues.
“Address a few important issues”, such as “Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein leaving the show forever after ‘Lisa the Simpson’ was a very likely contributor toward the show’s nosedive” and “Had they known that The Simpsons would continue for over 25 more years, the duo would have firebombed the building.”

To answer Billy’s question, DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid.
Shut up.

As it was the final episode they ran, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein wanted to end on a good note, with Weinstein stating that the episode “was meant to embody the humor, depth, and emotions of The Simpsons”. They also wished to have an episode they ran that was based on the background of every character they could do, and believed that this episode came out well.
This trend of stuffing the background with every recognizable character continues for the rest of the show’s infinite run, whittling down the total population of Springfield to 79 people.

On the DVD audio commentary, Ned Goldreyer stated, “I think this might have been the best episode ever produced.”
Ol’ Ned keeps his standards low.

FINAL GRADE
B+