Bart the General

] The second is Herman who has been used less. The design of Herman except for only having one arm was inspired by the look of the writer John Swartzwelder. The voice was partly inspired by George H. W. Bush and performed by Harry Shearer. The original idea with Herman was that every time he would be shown he would have a different story to why he only has one arm.

Cultural references

The episode featured several references to war films. Several lines of dialogue, Bart slapping one of his soldiers for "being a disgrace" and the music are lifted directly from the film "Patton" from 1970. Fox owned the rights to this film, so it was no problem to use the soundtrack. The marching sequence is a nod to Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" from 1986. and the "The Longest Day" from 1962 is also referenced. Bart concludes the episode by stating that the only "good wars" are the American Revolution, World War II and the event of the "Star Wars original trilogy". [cite news|url=http://www.starwars.com/community/news/media/f20070724/index.html?page=3|title=I Bent My Wookiee! Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection|accessdate=2008-04-22|date=2007-07-24|author=Scott Chernoff|publisher=Star Wars.com]

Reception

Matt Groening notes on the commentary track that he finds it strange how controversial this episode seemed at the time of its release. Today, they would go a lot further and to him this episode now seems harmless. The authors of the book "I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide", Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "Some good lines and setpieces aside - we love Bart's fantasy of death at Nelson's hands - this episode nevertheless feels a bit unsure of itself, particularly towards the end." In a DVD review of the first season David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3/5 and adds "Another episode that helped to propel Bart's popularity into the stratosphere ...". [cite web|url=http://www.wdbgproductions.com/cinerama/reviews/simpsonsseason1.htm|title=The Simpsons: The Complete First Season|accessdate=2008-01-14|date=2003|author=Grelck, David B|publisher=WDBG Productions]

In its original American broadcast, "Bart the General" finished 31st place in the weekly ratings for the week of January 29 - February 4 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 14.3. It was the highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. [cite news|title='ROSEANNE' GRABS EARLY SWEEPS LEAD|date=February 8, 1990|accessdate=2008-06-26|page=E8|publisher=The Orlando Sentinel|author=Associated Press]

Use in scientific research

"Bart the General" and "Seinfeld"'s "The Tape" were used in a Dartmouth College experiment to study brain activity in relation to humorous moments in television shows. The results were published in a 2004 issue of the academic journal "Neurolmage". The researchers noted, "During moments of humor detection, significant [brain] activation was noted in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus ... and left inferior frontal gyrus". [qtd. in Keay Davidson. "So these scientists go into a lab to see what's funny ... - They find gender differences in how humor affects brain". "San Francisco Chronicle". November 21, 2005. A1.]

Notes

External links

*snpp capsule|7G05
*imdb episode|id=0701059|episode=Bart the General