Hardly Kirk-ing (S24, E13-521)

Kirk is so unnoteworthy, someone with stubby arms and a stiff walking motion can pass as him.

Plot Summary
Marge stops Homer from letting Maggie watch an "educational" DVD that's even less effective as doing nothing.  To help turn Maggie around, Marge takes her, Lisa and Homer to a kid's library.  Homer comes across a "find the hidden items" book he becomes addicted to.  Meanwhile, Bart - who stayed behind - is spending time at Milhouse's place.  In an attempt to make things not so boring, Bart sprays some epoxy into Milhouse's hair, then promises to get it out.  Eventually, the entire top of Milhouse's hair has to be cut off, leaving him with hair that looks very similar to that of his father, Kirk Van Houten.  Bart realizes this, and has Milhouse try on one of Kirk's suits.  With the tie straightened, Milhouse's voice is fixed to sound just like Kirk and Bart determines that he can pass Milhouse off as an adult to acquire adult things.

Bart puts Milhouse on paint cans so he can appear as tall as Kirk.  Quickly, both Bart and even Milhouse take advantage of Milhouse's portrayal of Kirk by doing all sorts of adult things: buying beer, learning where babies come from, voting, that kind of stuff.  Later, Lisa is upset that Marge won't take her to a jazz show because it's in dangerous downtown Springfield.  Bart decides to help his sister out by using Milhouse to provide adult supervision.  Lisa's jazz show has a cover cost, but is aware that the company that made the aforementioned DVD has lost a lawsuit over its product and that people can go to its office to get money.  "Kirk" takes Bart and Lisa to a bus station to get a ride to that office, but it turns out they only got back $20, which isn't enough to get into the jazz show.  Upset, Lisa just wants to get breakfast, when the three see a Condo Sales Presentation which offers free breakfast.  With "Kirk" around, the three decide to get some grub.

Marge learns that their kids aren't at the Van Houtens as she was led to believe, so she gets Homer, now a searching expert thanks to the "find the item" books he's solved, to help find the three.  At the presentation, Bart, Lisa and "Kirk" are the only ones left, but the saleswoman comes on to "Kirk", and takes him to a back room.  Homer and Marge arrive just in time and quickly spot Milhouse, whose hair has begun to grow back.  Later, Milhouse confesses to his father the things he did under his name, but reveals he had a great time pretending to be him and hopes to become his father when he becomes older.  Kirk takes pride in this and lets Milhouse represent himself at the parent-teacher conferences while the Simpsons just take these developments in stride, I guess.

Quick Review
An episode where Bart gets Milhouse to pretend to be his own father is a fun idea for an episode, but its a shame this episode doesn't provide a good enough level of comedy to back it up.

Also, in this episode's initial airing, Maggie Simpson in: The Longest Daycare was broadcasted for the first time, so the episode's running time is a little low.  In future airings, the time is made up with the extra long Game of Thrones couch gag which transitions into this episode's couch gag, which did seem kinda rushed.

Final Score: 6.5