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| Nothing is more fun for a mother than making her son believe she's dead! |
Principal Skinner, dreaming himself to be some kind of big shot, announces to the school that he will be hosting a special field trip: on board a nuclear submarine. However, the field trip is forcibly limited to just a few students, whom Skinner will decide on based on students' behavior from this point forward. Essentially on a clean slate, Bart decides to be on his best behavior so that he can get on that sub, despite both his family not believing in him and Skinner being very strict with taking students off "the list" for things as simple as letting gum fall on the floor.
Bart's determination hits a snag when the bus stalls on the way to school. Fearing he'll be late and thus scratched off the list, Bart gets out and makes a mad dash to school. He arrives just in time, but unfortunately runs in with muddy feet, giving Skinner enough reason to scratch Bart off his list. Bart tries to get on the sub in other ways, first via a prank and later by good ol' fashioned sucking up, but Skinner leaves Bart off the field trip list regardless, leaving Bart to watch the submarine sink into the ocean depths.
Homer arrives in time to see Bart in distress and decides to help the boy enact some revenge. The next morning, Skinner wakes up in his home to find his mother seemingly stabbed dead on the kitchen floor. Homer and Bart conveniently arrive at his house to 'see' the scene and the two 'promise' to help Skinner out, though its obviously a ploy devised by Homer and Bart, with Agnes gladly helping out. The two convince Skinner that letting the likes of Chief Wiggum figure the scene out is tantamount to suicide, and that leaving town is the only option, dressing him up as the disguised "Dick Fiddler" and seeing Skinner off on a bus. Homer and Bart return home, mission accomplished, however Skinner is there, finding himself unable to flee so easily. He's ready to take the blame for his 'crime', even admitting that deep down inside he wanted his mother to die anyway. Marge has enough, and blows Bart's scheme, and Agnes comes in to reveal to Skinner that not only is she still alive, but she heard his admission and plans on being even meaner to him as a punishment.
Meanwhile, Krusty is broke (again), and Lisa witnesses repo men take his stuff away. Lisa convinces Krusty to license his show globally so that other people can act like Krusty in their respective countries, and Krusty can earn some of each show's profits. Krusty agrees to do so, and is able to get 75% of each international show's profits for each person to act like a regional Krusty. Soon, though, each Krusty gains their share of fame, so much so that the original Krusty becomes the least popular of them all. Those regional Krustys demand the original let them keep more of their earnings, but Krusty tries to appease them instead by promising to appear on each of their shows, which due to Krusty's lack of popularity, only drives them to chase him out away from wherever he is.
Quick Review
This was a pretty good episode, all things considered. The couch gag wasn't stupidly long, the focus on Principal Skinner (and Krusty, less so) worked well for the most part, and I enjoyed Homer and Bart's role in the episode. The only downer I felt the episode produced was the Jamaican Krusty bit, complete with a Jamaican "Itchum and Scratchum" thing that wasn't all that good, but that's a minor complaint for what was otherwise a decent episode.
Final Score: 7.6
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