The Bart Wants What it Wants

The Simpsons join a kickline of Rockette-style dancers as the living room turns into a showbiz extravaganza, with fire-eaters, performing animals, magicians, unicyclists, etc.

Guest star(s)

Reese Witherspoon as Greta
Wolfgang Puck as himself

Season 13
November 6, 2001 – May 22, 2002
"Treehouse of Horror XII" "The Parent Rap" "Homer the Moe" "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" "The Blunder Years" "She of Little Faith" "Brawl in the Family" "Sweets and Sour Marge" "Jaws Wired Shut" "Half-Decent Proposal" "The Bart Wants What It Wants" "The Lastest Gun in the West" "The Old Man and the Key" "Tales from the Public Domain" "Blame It on Lisa" "Weekend at Burnsie's" "Gump Roast" "I Am Furious Yellow" "The Sweetest Apu" "Little Girl in the Big Ten" "The Frying Game" "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge"
List of all The Simpsons episodes

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"The Bart Wants What it Wants" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' thirteenth season. The episode aired on February 17, 2002.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Cultural references
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

Plot

The episode opens with a car/helicopter chase. The Simpsons are fleeing olympic officials after Homer has stolen the Olympic torch. After being talked to by Marge, she snatches it from Homer, then throws it out the window. The torch is then grabbed by the helicopter guys, and they admire the beautiful flame, forgetting to steer, causing it to crash (extinguising the flame in the process). After the whole ordeal, the family visits a private school-held carnival. A girl, Greta (Rainier Wolfcastle's daughter), is being bullied, and Bart saves her. She likes Bart so much that she invites him to the Wolfcastle family house. Later, the Wolfcastles come to the Simpson house. Bart comes with Milhouse to visit Greta, who invites Bart to her school dance. However, Bart is very much looking forward to seeing Principal Skinner perform stand-up comedy, à la Jerry Seinfeld at a local club. Since the events occur on the same night, Bart chooses to go to the club. Bart is impressed that Skinner's "comedy" act is a bomb.

Later, Bart breaks up with Greta after he thinks that women are easy to deal with. After Bart attempts to apologize to Greta, she dates Milhouse as revenge. Bart is shocked. It only gets worse when she says she and Milhouse will join her dad in Toronto to shoot a movie. Bart asks the family to join him in going to Toronto. Bart finds Greta at a movie studio named Paramountie Studios (a parody of Paramount Pictures), but after Bart and Milhouse get in a big fight that ends up interrupting a curling match, Greta declares she has no interest whatsoever in either Bart or Milhouse. The boys then reconcile and become part of Canada's basketball team.

Production

Although the episode was written by John Frink and Don Payne, the idea was pitched by Joel H. Cohen and Tim Long, both of whom are Canadian.^[1]

Cultural references

Greta's line, "You're breaking up with me?" is exactly the same line uttered by Reese Witherspoon's character in the movie Legally Blonde.
Maggie can be seen playing with a plush toy of Bongo, the one-eared rabbit from Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip.
When Marge makes a cooking suggestion to Wolfgang Puck, he immediately heads to the "Puck-mobile" to test it to the music of the 1960s Batman television series.
Milhouse yells WASSUP!!! twice which comes from various Budweiser commercials. Milhouse can also be heard saying this during the Gracie Films logo in this episode.
When Lisa and Principal Skinner look inside the window of Springfield Preparatory School they see a periodic table poster with 250 elements the title of which reads "The Complete Periodic Table". Skinner then tells Lisa that their school only has 16 elements; all of them lanthanoids. However, the current periodic table of elements only has 15 lanthanoids, which contradicts with Skinner's previous statement.
One of the studios Bart passes by is filming "Canadian Graffiti" which is a parody of the George Lucas movie American Graffiti.
The first time Principal Skinner performs at the comedy club, a bass line plays much like many episodes of Seinfeld. The second time Skinner performs, a slightly modified version of the exact Seinfeld theme plays.
Milhouse's line "Take off hoser!" is a reference to Bob & Doug McKenzie.
The music playing when the family arrives in Toronto is "Take Off" by Bob and Doug McKenzie, featuring Rush lead singer, Geddy Lee.
Rainier Wolfcastle saying "Remember when I said I would eat you last? I lied!" to the piece of pie on the dinner table, is a parody of the movie Commando when Arnold Schwarzenegger says "Remember when I said I would kill you last? I lied!"
Lisa's determination not to be a "Gamecock" indicates her unwillingness to attend the University of South Carolina, whose mascot is the Gamecocks.
The title is a play on Woody Allen's remark concerning his controversial affair with his ex-wife, Mia Farrow's adopted daughter: "The heart wants what it wants" (also the title of the interview in which it appeared).^[2]

Reception

The episode received a mediocre review in the Toronto Star. Reviewer Hannah Sung said it "wasn't entirely bad, but the payoff didn't match the hype" (In Canada, the episode had been hyped for weeks, if not months). She said that the third act in the city of Toronto was a disappointment and "really just a sloppy amalgamation of every Canadian joke we've ever been told by Americans that lose their punch after the millionth time."^[3]

References

^ "Two Canadians suggested bringing Simpsons to Toronto", The Kithener Record (2002-02-16), p. C6. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
^ "The Heart Wants What It Wants" at time.com
^ Hannah Sung (2002-02-19). "The Simpsons in Toronto a boring cliché", Toronto Star, p. F02. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.