Bart Gets an Elephant (S05, E17-098)

You can tell its just playing because it hasn't bitten down yet.

Plot Summary
With the house an absolute mess, Marge forces the family to clean it up, much to everyone's dismay.  Bart tries to pass the time by listening to the radio, where he overhears a contest where people are called and have to reply with a certain phrase.  Eventually, the station calls the house and Bart is able to pick up and give the reply.  As the winner, Bart is supposed to win either $10,000 or a "gag prize", an elephant.  Caring not for currency, Bart opts for the elephant, making a big fuss when the radio guys can not provide him one.  Facing the loss of their jobs, they finally do find and give Bart an elephant.

The elephant, whom Bart calls "Stampy" tends to put people in his mouth and is an overall nuisance to peanut giveaways, trees and silence enthusiasts throughout town.  More importantly, keeping Stampy is a massive drain on the Simpsons' finances.  Bart eventually gives Homer the idea to have people pay $1 to see the elephant and $2 to ride it, but the profits are not nearly enough to compensate.  Homer decides that he has to sell the elephant.  A man from a nature preserve offers Stampy a chance to be with other elephants in a free-roam environment, but as he can not offer any money, Homer declines the offer much to Lisa's disdain.  Instead, Homer agrees to sell Stampy to a guy who probably deals in ivory.  Fearing the worst, Bart decides to run away with Stampy, but Stampy runs loose, leaving Bart to chase after him.

With Bart and Stampy missing, the family goes to look for them.  Stampy causes havoc throughout town as the day progresses, but by night it settles at a tar pit where Bart finds him as does the family.  Homer still plans to sell him to the ivory dealer, but as he finds himself sinking into a tar pit, Stampy is able to rescue him.  His life saved, Homer finally relents and Stampy goes to live at the nature preserve where we find out that after the life Stampy has lived, its become a big jerk.

Quick Review
Another rather silly premise this season, the episode really works out very well.  The cleaning plot to set up the episode works very well, and the antics of the elephant are funny enough to sustain the rest of the episode.

Final Score: 9.0