Bart's Comet (S06, E14-117)

I always though the sound Moe made was that of a dying horse.

Plot Summary
On the last day of a science fair, Principal Skinner sets loose an odd looking weather balloon, however its learned Bart tampered with it where with a few alterations it looks like Skinner with a big butt.  Skinner's attempts to bring down "Big-butt Skinner" fail, and upon quickly realizing Bart is behind the scheme, "punishes" him by forcing him to help Skinner with his astronomy work early the next morning.  There, in an attempt to find a star or constellation or something to have himself named after, Skinner instead relocates the weather balloon and runs off to retrieve it.  In the meantime, Bart messes around with the telescope, and finds a comet, calling it into the observatory with a phone Skinner had around.  Upon his return, Skinner is met with a trio of terror: Bart discovered a comet instead of Skinner, the shock of the news has Skinner let go of the balloon to let Big-butt Skinner fly free again, and the newspaper comes in with the tag line: "Prez Sez: School is for losers".

Having some pride in discovering the comet, Bart is met by a small group of nerds at lunch who wish to have Bart join because of his discovery.  The group, which includes Lisa, is terrified when Bart is able to point out the comet in broad daylight, now believing the comet is headed straight for Springfield, which is later confirmed.  The mayor returns to town to give its citizens hope: a plan has been devised which will shoot a missile at the comet, destroying it.  The plan leaves the townsfolk cocky and confident, but sure enough the missile misses the comet, and on the way down destroys the only bridge out of town.

Now stuck in Springfield, with political action not doing much, the town has about six hours left to live.  Homer tries to comfort the family by saying the comet will likely fall apart and reach the plant the size of a Chihuahua's head, but decides to take his family to the bomb shelter anyway, which is just Flanders' bomb shelter and big enough for both families.  Apparently, its the only bomb shelter in town as nearly everyone in town decides to stuff themselves into it.  However, now its too stuffed, and the door won't close.  Upon deciding who should leave to make room, Homer takes the opportunity to kick Flanders out, with the reasoning that there would be no need for left-handed stores in the future.  Flanders relents and walks out.  One tense barn animal guessing game later, and nobody can stand the thought of Flanders dying alone, and thus everyone leaves the bomb shelter to join Ned in their likely demise.  However, the comet breaks up in the polluted atmosphere, pops a hole in Big-butt Skinner, and flies into the bomb shelter, destroying it but nothing else.  It's small enough to fit in Bart's pocket and the town is relieved.  However, the Simpson family isn't, because the event way exactly as Homer predicted, meaning that Homer was right all along.  How scary.

Quick Review
Bart's Comet was a fun episode.  Skinner was the star of the episode at the start though later on as the comet's threat as known the town's reaction to all the events, while not the best thing about the episode, holds its own.

Final Score: 9.3