Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Bart the Genius (S01, E02-002)

You know, he ended up with Bart's aptitude test.  He must've been upset.
Plot Summary
In the episode, Bart switches his aptitude test with Martin's, and as a result is considered a genius.  He goes to a gifted school to find out that, his father's adoration aside, the life of a gifted student isn't all that great.  Especially when you don't understand that the derivative of r^3/3 becomes r dr r (har de har har!), although shouldn't that be r^2 dr?  I dunno.

After Bart blows a science experiment, he decides he has enough and 'delicately' tells Homer, who he's bonded with during his time at his new school, the truth about the switched test.  Homer doesn't take it so well, and everyone is, for the most part, relieved that the status quo is back to normal.

Quick Review
Looking back now, its easy to typecast a lot of character from the series, because, like it or not, they've become very specific parodies of their character archetype.   Bart Simpson is the prankster.  Milhouse Van Houten is his geeky friend.  Nelson Muntz is the well known bully.  Martin Prince is the nerd, etc, etc.  All of them have their little quirks, and some even have catchphrases which nowadays get spouted out without proper context or setup.  Still, none of that would come to pass unless early episodes such as Bart the Genius establishes those characters.  In this particular case, the characters of Bart as a prankster who doesn't do well in school, and Martin Prince who is a very smart teacher's pet.

While the episode had a few funny bits, including Homer's signature looking so bad a kid could've forged it, Homer and Bart's antics at an opera, and, well, not much else, there wasn't anything that really went against the episode either.  It was a solid enough episode, one that sets up Bart's character for years to come, it just didn't have very many things worth laughing over.

Final Score: 5.9

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