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| Lisa really sounded off-cue in this bit, guess that's par for the course. |
Lady Gaga's train is about to pass through Springfield, when the star notices something a little odd: that all the town's signs indicate how depressing it is. Meanwhile, Lisa has been voted as the least popular girl in school. Things seem like they're about to turn around when a forum poster known as "TruthTeller" defends Lisa on a local message board, but Bart finds out - in front of everyone - that Lisa is actually TruthTeller, and now everyone makes for of "LieSmeller" Lisa for that. Lisa's ultra-depression reaches Gaga telepathically, or something, and she decides to make a stop at Springfield.
As Lisa's hopes continue to die, compounded by her loss of integrity from the TruthTeller thing, she hopes for some solitude to finish the kill, but Homer decides to take Lisa to see Gaga as the train pulls into the station. Upon arriving, Gaga performs for the large audience there to greet her, and it seems like Lisa is about to cheer up, until nearby bullies call her LieSmeller again, and Lisa becomes depressed again. Gaga is able to sense this, and somehow stealthily makes her way over to Lisa to help her become happy again.
Despite Gaga's numerous attempts to make Lisa happy via flashy, hollow means, Lisa remains horribly depressed. The next day at school, Gaga tries again but Lisa has enough, going off on Gaga over giving people false hope and trying to fill them with happiness that just isn't there. She finishes telling Gaga off by denouncing her, several times, leaving Gaga in diamond-encrusted tears.
Later, Homer tries to cheer her up in his usual manner, when Lisa finds that she has no anger or depression left to unload on Homer. Realizing what's occurred, Lisa runs off to find Gaga. Gaga is about to leave on her train, now more depressed than the town in general, when Lisa stops her just in time to thank her. Lisa reveals that by expelling all of her pent up anger on Gaga, she's able to focus on the things that make her feel good again. Happy that Lisa is happy, Gaga has Lisa join her for a song, and Gaga takes her leave.
Quick Review
This rather infamous episode is about as bad as I thought it'd be. Some time ago, I lamented over the first episode to focus its plot around a celebrity (or in that case, many celebrities), and this episode is basically the same kind of deal, except this time the celebrity is a huge star who has a huge fanbase... most of which I would imagine have never been fans of The Simpsons. Conversely, I doubt very many Simpsons fans - old or even new - are that big of fans of Gaga, I know I'm not. Yes, I'm generalizing and I'm sure there are some exceptions out there that would take offense to those generalizations, but for the most part I think that's true.
The oft-used "Lisa is unpopular" storyline was actually okay for a bit, but the episode was just too focused on Gaga. It's a big deal that Gaga's train is heading for Springfield, its Gaga that's gonna cheer the town up, its Gaga that's going to cheer Lisa up, etc etc. The episode is all about Lady Gaga, and Lisa takes a backseat at times to the star's eccentric behavior. Hardly any of it was funny, and it makes for a rather fitting end for what was a disaster of a season.
Final Score: 4.2
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