Bart Gets Famous

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Bart Gets Famous


image_caption = Bart's class after he reluctantly utters his catchphrase.
episode_no = 93
prod_code = 1F11
airdate = February 3, 1994
show runner = David Mirkin
writer = John Swartzwelder
director = Susie Dietter
blackboard = "My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man"cite book|last=Richmond |first=Ray|coauthors=Antonia Coffman|title= |year=1997 |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers|id=ISBN 0-00-638898-1|pages=p. 133]
couch_gag = The family collides when running and lands into the couch as one big hunk of amorphous glop.
guest_star = Conan O'Brien as himself
commentary = Matt Groening
James L. Brooks
David Mirkin
Conan O'Brien
Susie Dietter
David Silverman
season = 5"Bart Gets Famous" is the twelfth episode of "The Simpsons" fifth season, which originally aired on February 3, 1994. The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Susie Dietter. Bart becomes a one-line comedian with the catch-phrase "I didn't do it". Guest starring is Conan O'Brien as himself.

Plot

Bart goes on an exaggeratedly dull class field trip to the box factory. However, Bart gets bored with the tour and sneakily escapes from the class to go to the Channel 6 TV studio nearby, where he wanders by a beach scene and Bumblebee Man. With his absence, Skinner calls Homer who arrives, thinking that Bart was killed in one of the giant box-making machines.

Meanwhile, Bart meets up with Krusty, who is angry that he does not have his Danish. Because of this, Bart steals a Danish from Kent Brockman and gives it to Krusty who becomes grateful and asks him to become his assistant. (Krusty has forgotten all the other times Bart has helped him out, from saving his career with the Krusty Comeback Special to saving him from being framed for armed robbery to reuniting Krusty with his estranged rabbi father.) When Bart returns home, Homer is relieved that he does not have to tell Marge that Bart was killed in a box factory accident. Afterwards, Bart continues his work as Krusty's assistant, though soon he gets tired, in that the cast members do not treat him well, and he does not get credited for his work helping the show. However, before Bart decides to quit, Krusty offers to let him say one line in a sketch. Bart messes up his lines and destroys all of the props on the stage. When the crowd's focus comes on him, he tries to get out of it, saying, "I didn't do it", which causes the audience to laugh and applaud. Seeing this, Krusty immediately uses Bart and his "I didn't do it" catch phrase in later sketches, and eventually creates a franchise out of it.

As Bart continues with being famous for his catchphrase, he begins to fear that the fad will wear off, so he tries to act intelligent (as during his interview on Conan O'Brien's late-night talk show). Eventually Bart's catch phrase loses its humor and Bart loses his fame.

Marge gives Bart a box of items she kept during his stint as, to quote Marge, "the world's special little guy", and gives it to him to help him remember this event. Lisa is glad that Bart is back to being a normal person instead of a one-dimensional character known for spouting a silly line.

Production

Bart's catchphrase in this episode is an intentional call back to the first season episode "Krusty Gets Busted" where it was a catchphrase of Krusty the Clown. [Cite video | people= David Silverman | year = 2004 | title = The Complete Fifth Season - Bart Gets Famous DVD commentary | medium = DVD | publisher = 20th Century Fox | time = 14 minutes] During the production of the episode, "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" had not begun filming and Conan O'Brien had only auditioned for the job. The scene involving a version of "The Conan O'Brien Show" was written into the episode anyway. During recording, O'Brien was appointed host of the talk show, but believed it would have been cancelled by the time the episode would air. [Cite video | people= Conan O'Brien | year = 2004 | title = The Complete Fifth Season - Bart Gets Famous DVD commentary | medium = DVD | publisher = 20th Century Fox | time = 6 minutes] The design of the insides of the box factory featured in this episode was discussed at great length by director Susie Dietter and executive creative consultant Brad Bird. Bird wanted the design to be more lively but Dietter wanted it to be more boring to go with the story. Dietter's design was used in the finished episode. [Cite video | people= Susie Dietter | year = 2004 | title = The Complete Fifth Season - Bart Gets Famous DVD commentary | medium = DVD | publisher = 20th Century Fox | time = 3 minutes] An intentional reference to a list published by "TV Guide" of worst theme songs is made near the start of the show. Bart is whistling the "Simpsons" theme tune and Marge tells him not to whistle "that annoying tune". The "Simpsons" theme was named by the readers of "TV Guide" as the most annoying theme ever. [Cite video | people= Matt Groening | year = 2004 | title = The Complete Fifth Season - Bart Gets Famous DVD commentary | medium = DVD | publisher = 20th Century Fox | time = 1 minute]

Cultural references

*Krusty alludes to the popular board game Cluedo (a.k.a. Clue) when he calls Bart and tells him that he needs his fingerprints on a candlestick and to meet him in the conservatory.
*One of Lisa's imagined future achievements, in addition to curing all disease and ending war, is a reunion of the entire cast of long-running sitcom "The Facts of Life", "including long-time holdout, Tootie." There was such a reunion as a TV-movie in 2001; Kim Fields returned as Tootie, but Nancy McKeon did not reprise her character of Jo.
*Bart records an I Didn't Do It rap with the backing track from MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This. The backwards jeans on the album cover reference the then-popular hip-hop group Kris Kross, who famously wore their clothes backwards.
*During a daydream, Bart imagines himself in the future and one of the characters is merely a head in jar (very similar to those found in the Matt Groening's Futurama (which would not be aired or even mentioned until it's arrival to the small screen nearly 6 years later)).

References

IMDB notes the obvious Futrama reference (which at the time would make it a prelude to the show)