Grift of the Magi

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Grift of the Magi


image_caption= Promotional image for Grift of the Magi.
episode_no = 235
prod_code = BABF07
airdate = December 19, 1999
show runner = Mike Scully
writer = Tom Martin
director = Matthew Nastuk
blackboard = "I will not sell my kidney on eBay."
couch_gag = Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie slide down a fire pole. Homer, however, gets stuck in the hole and flails about helplessly.
guest_star = Tim Robbins as Jim Hope Clarence Clemons as the Narrator Gary Coleman as himself Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony.
season = 11

"Grift of the Magi" is the ninth episode of the eleventh season. It first aired on December 19, 1999.

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Plot

After an ozone hole moves over Springfield, Bart and Milhouse are stuck inside the house. They dress up as ladies and jump on the bed, but when they do this, Bart breaks his coccyx. Dr. Hibbert informs Homer and Marge that Bart will have to use a wheelchair for the time being. When Bart goes to school the next day, the school does not have ramps for the disabled, which changes when Fat Tony and his construction company, "Valdazzo Brothers Olive Oil", decides to build the ramps. They build too many ramps around the school. When the time comes for Bart to use the ramps, it is revealed that his "butt-bone" has healed. Principal Skinner, however, remains confident on the future use of the ramps, which then crumble because they are made of paint, breadsticks, and shellac. Fat Tony informs Skinner that he will have to pay $200,000 for damage. In response, Principal Skinner chooses to close Springfield Elementary due to lack of funds. All pleas for help (like Mr. Burns) prove futile until Jim Hope, the president of a company named Kid First Industries, buys the school and privatizes it.

At the school, an all-new staff teaches students classes about toys and marketing, which makes Lisa suspicious when her class is asked to name a new toy that they will sell for Christmas. Bart visits Lisa writing lines on the blackboard. When Bart leaves and turns off the classroom lights, Lisa finds light shining through the blackboard. Lisa later discovers that they are a toy company that uses children for research to make a toy, through the use of hidden cameras, tape recording and clear, two-way blackboards. She brings in her parents and Chief Wiggum to investigate, but they do not believe her because the room used for spying on the children was taken out and replaced. Later on, the new toy is named Funzo (a name which Lisa ironically suggested in class) with traits that the students had suggested during a brainstorming session (including lots of firepower, which Bart suggested in similar irony). Lisa takes Bart to the KFI headquarters, sneaking past Gary Coleman (as a security guard with varying mental health). They visit Jim Hope's office and he gives them a free Funzo. Bart and Lisa like it at home (although Lisa prefers Malibu Stacy), until they discover that Funzo is programmed to destroy other toys. On Christmas Eve, with Homer's help, they steal all the Funzos in Springfield with the intention of burning them. However, Gary Coleman comes to stop them, until they get into a discussion of Christmas. Just after they agree that Christmas's commercialization is a mixed blessing, a Funzo suddenly emerges from the fire and attacks them, only to be defeated by Coleman. Afterwards, they invite Gary Coleman to a Christmas dinner at the Simpson house. As for Springfield Elementary, Mr. Burns has a change of heart and decides to fund the school after all.

External links

*snpp capsule|BABF07
*imdb episode|id=0701101|episode=Grift of the Magi