• The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Bart Station
• The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Bart Change

'The Great Money Caper' is the seventh episode of The Simpsons' twelfth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 10, 2000. In the episode, Homer, along with his son Bart, con people out of their money in order to pay for Homer's broken car. However, after having paid for the repairs, the two decide to continue grifting, which leads to some troublesome situations.

Just when you think you've seen it all in pro wrestling, something like this comes along. At a recent wrestling show put on by Bar Wrestling in Los Angeles, an iconic brawl between Bart and Lisa on The Simpsons was actually recreated in the ring by pro wrestlers. The moment came during a tag team match between Killer Baes (Laura James and Heather Monroe) and RockNES Monsters (BHK and YUMA). The Third Grade' is the third episode of Season 14. After taking an aptitude test, Bart is held back a grade, and Lisa is skipped ahead, landing them in third grade at the same time, and in the same class. Tension develops between the pair, but they are forced to work together when they become lost on a school field trip. Simpson university women's wrestling. The Simpsons: Bart vs. Action, Adventure, Comedy Video game released 22 October 1992 Bart wins a painting contest and embarks on a round-the-world treasure hunt. Unbeknownst to him, the contest was rigged by Mr. Burns, who hates the Simpson family so much he has vowed to. The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The Space Mutants was a multiplatform game, and was the first ever Simpsons game (it released in 1991). The game's promising opening level was loaded with references to the show and contained some interesting adventure mechanics. 2020-2-28  The Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company.The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.It is set in the fictional town of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society and television, and many. 2016-3-5  The Simpsons Wrestling.a good concept, but is the game good? This is why I am taking a look at it. You can find the game on the PS1, or PSX, whatever you prefer to call the damn console. I hope you enjoy this review. Thanks for watching.

The episode was written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Michael Polcino. The episode's title is a parody on The Great Muppet Caper. The episode features American actor Edward Norton as con artist Devon Bradley. In its original American broadcast, the episode received a 9.7 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The Simpsons Wrestling is a fighting video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons.Developed by Big Ape Productions and published by Activision (Electronic Arts in Europe) for the PlayStation, it was first released in Europe in March 2001, followed by North America a month later.

Plot[edit]

The family goes to a magic-themed restaurant. While there, Marge gets drunk on Long Island Iced Teas and Bart becomes so fascinated with magic that he buys a magician's kit from the gift shop. On the way home, a sturgeon falls from the sky (implicitly from the space station Mir) onto the family car's hood, which is severely damaged. Homer and Bart start their magic show as a way to make money, but the act becomes a failure, and Homer leaves Bart to do the rest of the act on his own. Bart is left out on the street, and people begin giving him money so he can get home on public transportation.

As Homer drives home, he sees Bart in a taxi, and when he gets home he sees him eating a steak dinner. They decide they can make money grifting, however Marge and Lisa begin suspecting of them after they 'worked' without Bart's kit, which they both left behind at home. Homer and Bart continue to grift after they have fixed the car, and Grampa volunteers to help them grift, since he was a con-artist during the Great Depression. Grampa, Homer, and Bart grift the residents at the Springfield Retirement Castle. While performing the grift, they are arrested by an FBI agent. When Homer and Bart get to jail, they realize the FBI agent himself is a con man, and conned them out of their money and the car.

Homer and Bart say the car was stolen in the church parking lot. The next morning they are surprised however to learn that Groundskeeper Willie was arrested for stealing the car, as he matched the description they gave of the carjacker as a 'foreign loner with wild, bushy hair'. Not wanting to admit they were conned, Homer and Bart go along with Marge's theory. At the trial, the Blue Haired Lawyer leads Homer to say that it was Willie who stole the car. After Willie is proven guilty, he snatches Wiggum's gun and shoots Principal Skinner. At this point Homer finally confesses that he got conned but Marge and the townspeople themselves tell Homer and Bart that they set up the trial and the carjacking to teach them a lesson on conning people, revealing that Skinner was not really shot (it was a fake blood pack), the judge was Grampa wearing a latex mask, and the con man who stole their car was an actor called Devon Bradley. As Lisa is ready to explain why the town, media and police officials had 'nothing better to do' than show them the consequences of their actions, Otto runs through the courtroom doors, shouting, 'Surf's Up!'. The scene then cuts to Springfield at the beach, with characters from the episode surfing, including the waiter from the restaurant, the two astronauts from the Mir space station and the sturgeon swimming in the sea.

Production[edit]

'The Great Money Caper' was written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Michael Polcino. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on December 10, 2000.^[2]

Originally, the episode would be about pool hustling, however as writing ensued, the script went through several incarnations until the Simpsons writers settled on the grifting story seen in the episode. Omine read several books about grifters for preparation for writing the episode. The other writers also prepared themselves by watching several heist films, including House of Games, Paper Moon and The Sting, the latter two of which are referenced in the episode. For example, the revelation that Devon Bradley, the FBI agent in the episode who is revealed to be a con artist, was inspired by such films.^[3]

In a scene in the episode, Homer and Bart exit the Magic Palace's gift shop, only to end up in another gift shop. The scene was based on an experience of the episode's show runnerMike Scully, who, in order to exit the Lance Burton Theatre after a magic show, had to pass through a gift shop.^[2] The ending scene of the episode went through several changes and was as a result completed late in the episode's production. The writers had conceived the courtroom scene, but they were stuck trying to come up with an ending after Skinner had been shot. They eventually decided that the trial was a scam staged by the townspeople, and Simpsons writer George Meyer pitched the surfing scene that closed the episode.^[3]

Casting[edit]

A scene that was eventually dropped from the episode featured Robby Krieger, guitarist of the American rock band The Doors, as himself. Krieger had been promised a guest role on The Simpsons after the staff were allowed to use the Doors song 'The End' for the season 11 episode 'Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder'. However, during production, Scully thought that the scene stood out too much and that Krieger's cameo felt 'too obviously shoe-horned in,' so the scene ended up being cut from the episode. The scene was later included in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season DVD set. To this day, Krieger has not officially been featured in an episode of The Simpsons. The con artist Devon Bradley was portrayed by American actor and director Edward Norton. Scully hired Norton for the role after James L. Brooks, one of The Simpsons' producers, told Scully that Norton was 'a big fan of the show' and was willing to guest star in an episode. In the DVD audio commentary for the episode, Scully noted that Norton was very versatile and could imitate many Simpsons characters perfectly. The announcer at the 'Magic Palace' who says the line 'Folks, this is not part of the act' was voiced by Scully. According to him, the line was 'a last-minute addition' to the episode.^[2]

Cultural references[edit]

The episode's plot is loosely based on the American comedy film Paper Moon, which was also the inspiration for Bart and Homer's swindle of Ned Flanders in the episode. The title of the episode is a parody of the 1981 film The Great Muppet Caper. The title was pitched by Simpsons writer Matt Selman. The episode's ending lampoons the cliche of having twist endings at the end of heist films.^[4] ”Magic Palace”, the magic-themed restaurant that the Simpsons visit in the beginning of the episode, is a parody on The Magic Castle, a nightclub in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Marge's line 'I didn't say that for clapping' is a reference to a speech given by John Wayne while he was intoxicated. Homer wants to buy a singing rubber fish after their first con. At the end of the episode, Bart exclaims “Cowabunga!”, a catch-phrase of the main characters in the animated television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.^[5] In the scene where Grampa joins Bart and Homer, Grampa mentions the film The Sting II.^[3]

Reception[edit]

In its original American broadcast on December 10, 2000, 'The Great Money Caper' received a 9.7 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, meaning it was seen by 9.7% of the population at the time of its broadcast.^[6] Among children, the episode was watched by 2.8 million viewers.^[7]

In his review of The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season DVD box set, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide praised the episode. He wrote that, unlike other episodes in the season, 'The Great Money Caper' did not 'rely on too many gimmicks' and therefore felt more realistic, even though he does not consider grifting an 'everyday activity.' He concluded his review by writing that the episode 'does well for itself.'^[8] Jason Bailey of DVD Talk described the episode as being one of the season's highlights.^[9] On the other hand, Matt Haigh of Den of Geek cited 'The Great Money Caper' as one of the worst episodes of the season, as well as the whole series. In his review, Haigh criticized the Simpsons writers for not making sense of the story, and denounced the episode's ending for being 'abrupt'.^[10]

References[edit]

1. ^'The Great Money Caper'. The Simpsons.com. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
2. ^ ^abcScully, Mike. (2009). Commentary for 'The Great Money Caper', in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
3. ^ ^abcOmine, Carolyn. (2009). Commentary for 'The Great Money Caper', in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
4. ^Selman, Matt. (2009). Commentary for 'The Great Money Caper', in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
5. ^Jean, Al. (2009). Commentary for 'The Great Money Caper', in The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
6. ^'TV News'. Reuters. December 15, 2000. Retrieved March 19, 2011.^{[permanent dead link]}
7. ^Huff, Richard (December 13, 2000). 'NIELSEN'S KIDDING US Youths have odd numbers'. Media Post News. NY Daily News. Retrieved March 9, 2011.^{[dead link]}
8. ^Jacobson, Colin (September 2, 2009). 'The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season (2000)'. DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
9. ^Bailey, Jason (August 31, 2009). 'The Simpsons: The Twelfth Season'. DVD Talk. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
10. ^Haigh, Matt (October 1, 2009). 'The Simpsons Season 12 DVD review'. Den of Geek. Retrieved March 20, 2011.

External links[edit]

• 'The Great Money Caper' at TheSimpsons.com
• 'The Great Money Caper episode capsule'. The Simpsons Archive.
• 'The Great Money Caper' on IMDb
• 'The Great Money Caper' at TV.com

'Bart vs. Australia' is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 19, 1995.^[3] In the episode, Bart is indicted for fraud in Australia, and the family travels to the country so Bart can apologize.

The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein and directed by Wes Archer. It features cultural references to films such as Mad Max 2 and Crocodile Dundee. 'Bart vs. Australia' acquired a Nielsen rating of 9.1 and was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

It received a mixed reception in Australia, with some Australian viewers saying the episode was a mockery of their country.

Plot[edit]

Bart notices that the water in the bathroom sink always drains counter-clockwise. Lisa explains that water only drains clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect. Bart makes phone calls to various countries in the Southern Hemisphere to confirm this.

The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Bart Station

When Lisa points out how expensive overseas calls are, Bart instead makes a collect call to Australia, where a boy named Tobias answers the phone. Bart impersonates an adult bureaucrat and is told the sink and toilet are both draining clockwise. Frustrated, Bart asks Tobias to check his neighbors' toilets. The call takes six hours to complete, since Tobias lives in the rural locality of Squatter's Crog and Bart fails to hang up the phone.

Three weeks later, Tobias's father Bruno is billed $900 for the phone call. Bruno calls Bart and demands payment, but Bart only taunts him. However, Bruno's neighbor is a federal Member of Parliament who reports the matter to the Prime Minister. After several letters from the Prime Minister and the Solicitor-General, Australia indicts Bart for fraud.

A U.S. State Department official arrives and explains that Bart has worsened already acrimonious Australia–United States relations. When Marge refuses to allow the State Department to imprison Bart for five years to placate Australia, the State Department settles on having Bart publicly apologize in Australia.

The Simpsons arrive in Australia and stay in the U.S. Embassy in Canberra. When Bart sees a sign prohibiting foreign visitors from bringing in invasive species, he leaves his pet bullfrog at the airport. A kangaroo puts the frog in its marsupial pouch, introducing it into the wild.

Bart makes his public apology, but an unsatisfied Parliament of Australia demands Bart receive a 'booting' — a kick on the buttocks with an oversize boot — as corporal punishment. Desperate, Bart and Homer escape and the family flees to the embassy, chased by a large, angry mob.

After a stand-off, the two governments propose a compromise: one kick from the Prime Minister, through the gate of the embassy, with a regular wing-tip shoe. Marge protests, but Bart agrees to the punishment. However, Bart dodges the kick, moons the Australians with the words 'Don't tread on me' written on his buttocks, and hums 'The Star-Spangled Banner'.

The outraged mob storms the embassy, and the Simpsons and the embassy staff are evacuated by helicopter. From the air, the Simpsons notice that Bart's bullfrog has reproduced and its offspring are wreaking havoc on Australia's ecosystem and farms. They gleefully laugh, unaware a koala has stowed away aboard their helicopter and may inadvertently be introduced to U.S. territories.

Production[edit]

The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, and directed by Wes Archer.^[4] The writing staff wanted to do an episode where the Simpson family traveled to Australia, because they thought everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and that they 'would get the jokes'.^[5] The staff had previously poked fun at several American institutions on the show and they thought it would be interesting to poke fun at a whole nation.^[6] They designed Australia and the Australian people very inaccurately and many things were completely made up for fun.^[4] The animators, however, got two Australian tourist guides to help them out with the design of the Australian landscape and buildings, as well as the US Embassy.^[6] The writers did research on the Coriolis effect for this episode.^[4] Lisa's explanation of the effect is incorrect; it affects global weather patterns and is caused by the spinning of the globe on its axis. The distances involved when a toilet or sink drains are much too small to be affected by it.^[7]

In 1999, Fox Studios Australia in Sydney used a different version of 'Bart vs. Australia' as part of their The Simpsons attraction, called The Simpsons Down Under. They had contacted the Simpsons writing staff and asked if they would write the screenplay for a ride in their attraction, based on this episode.^[6] The episode was re-edited and re-animated for the ride and new scenes were included.^[6] The attraction featured motion capture technology, allowing audience members' faces and expressions to be transformed into moving cartoon characters.^[8][9]

Cultural references[edit]

The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Bart Change

The plot of the episode is based on the story of Michael Fay, an American teenager who was caned in Singapore in 1994 for vandalizing cars.^[4][10] This episode perpetuated a popular myth that the Coriolis effect affects the motion of drains in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.^[6] In reality, the Coriolis effect affects global weather patterns. The amount of water in a toilet or sink is much too small to be affected by it.^[11]

During the scene in which Bart calls various locations in the Southern Hemisphere, he calls a car phone belonging to a man who appears to be an elderly version of Adolf Hitler alive in Buenos Aires, referencing the popular conspiracy theory that Hitler faked his deathand fled to Argentina after the end of World War II.

When Bart is talking to the boy's father on the phone, he says, 'Hey! I think I hear a dingo eating your baby!', referencing the case of Azaria Chamberlain, a ten-week-old baby who was killed by dingoes.^[12] The bullfrogs taking over Australia and destroying all the crops is a reference to the cane toad, originally introduced to Australia in order to protect sugar canes from the cane beetle, but became a pest in the country.^[4]

When the Simpson family go to an Australian pub, Bart plays with a pocketknife at the table and a man asks him, 'You call that a knife?', and as the man draws a spoon from his pocket he says, 'This is a knife.' The scene is a reference to a famous scene from Crocodile Dundee, in which Mick Dundee is threatened by some thugs with a switchblade, and Mick takes out a bowie knife and says; 'That's not a knife; that's a knife!'^[6] The Simpson family is shown a slide show by the US Department of State depicting a boarded up cinema with a marquee reading 'Yahoo Serious Festival', in reference to the Australian actor and director Yahoo Serious.^[1][13] Wez, one of the characters from the 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, is seen in the Australian mob that chases Bart and Homer to the US Embassy.^[14]

The scene where the Simpsons family and the embassy staff get evacuated via helicopter is a reference to the helicopter evacuation of the U.S. Embassy to South Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon, with one shot referencing Hubert van Es's famous photograph of USAID and CIA employees being evacuated by an Air AmericaHuey helicopter from 22 Gia Long Street.

Reception[edit]

In its original broadcast, 'Bart vs. Australia' finished 56th in the ratings for the week of February 13–19, 1995, with a Nielsen rating of 9.1.^[15] It was the fourth highest rated show on Fox that week.^[15] The episode has since become study material for sociology courses at the University of California, where it is used to 'examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show', and to figure out what it is 'trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies'.^[16]

Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics.

In a DVD review of the sixth season, Ryan Keefer said 'all the Australian jabs you expect to have here are present. Bart's international incident is hilarious, from top to bottom. The phone calls he makes to other countries (particularly Buenos Aires) are fantastic. This is one of the more under appreciated episodes in the series' run.'^[17]

Vanity Fair named it the second best episode of The Simpsons in 2007.^[18]

'Bart vs. Australia' was also nominated for an Emmy Award in 1995 in the category 'Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special'.^[19]

Reaction in Australia[edit]

The episode received a mixed reception in Australia, with some Australian fans saying the episode was a mockery of their country. Shortly after it had aired, the Simpsons staff received over 100 letters from Australians who were insulted by the episode.^[6] They also received letters from people complaining about the Australian accents used in the episode that 'sounded more like South African accents'.^[5]The Simpsons writer and producer Mike Reiss claimed that this episode is Australia's least favorite, and that 'whenever we have the Simpsons visit another country, that country gets furious, including Australia'. He claimed that they were 'condemned in the Australian Parliament after the episode had aired'.^[20]

The Newcastle Herald's James Joyce said he was shocked when he first saw the episode: 'Who are the Americans trying to kid here? I agree Australia has its faults, as does any other country. But laughing in our face about it, then mocking our heritage was definitely not called for. It embarrassed and degraded our country as well as making us look like total idiots'.^[13] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, advised that the episode is 'best if watched with Australians who will be, perhaps understandably, aggrieved at their portrayal. After the attack on the French, this is a vicious, unkind, offensive and wonderfully amusing slaughter of Australian culture by the makers of The Simpsons.'^[1]

David Mirkin, who produced the episode, responded to the criticism in an interview with The Newcastle Herald by saying: 'We like to have the Simpsons, the entire family, travel and this was the beginning of that. Australia was a fantastic choice because it has lots of quirky visual things. And it's a country that is really very close to America, very in sync with America. We are so similar but yet there are all these fantastic differences, familiar yet twisted. It was intentional to make it very inaccurate. That was our evil side coming out: We'll take our knowledge of Australia and we'll twist it around to stimulate an audience and annoy them at the same time.'^[13] Despite being criticized for mocking the country, the episode received positive reviews from Australians, too. Jim Schembri of the Australian newspaper The Age named it the funniest episode ever.^[21]

In the episode, Tobias' father refers to Australian dollars as 'dollarydoos', leading to a petition on change.org to change the name of the Australian currency to dollarydoos. The petition claims that the name change will stimulate the struggling Australian economy. When the petition had closed, it had received 69,574 signatures.^[22]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcMartyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). 'Bart vs. Australia'. BBC. Retrieved September 12, 2008.
2. ^Richmond & Coffman 1997, p. 167.
3. ^'Bart vs. Australia'. The Simpsons.com. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
4. ^ ^abcdeMirkin, David (2005). The Simpsons season 6 DVD commentary for the episode 'Bart vs. Australia' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
5. ^ ^abWeinstein, Josh (2005). The Simpsons season 6 DVD commentary for the episode 'Bart vs. Australia' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
6. ^ ^abcdefgOakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons season 6 DVD commentary for the episode 'Bart vs. Australia' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
7. ^Turner 2004, p. 331.
8. ^Emmons, Natasha (November 1, 1999). '$261 Million Fox Studios Australia To Open Nov. 7'. All Business. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
9. ^Innes, Stuart (November 6, 1999). 'Lights, camera, ACTION'. The Advertiser. pp. M25.
10. ^Tseng, Douglas (July 25, 2007). 'D'oh Spinner — A movie, eh? Mmmm, 18 years after The Simpsons wooed TV viewers — oh those chalkboard gags, couch gags and wicked one-liners — they are finally terrorising the big screen'. The Straits Times.
11. ^Michel, Roger; Beth Teitell (April 28, 1996). 'Toilet Flush Goes with Flow the World Over'. The Boston Herald. p. 78.
12. ^Alberti, John (2004). 'Ethnic Stereotyping'. Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. p. 280. ISBN0-8143-2849-0. Retrieved October 25, 2008.
13. ^ ^abcJames, Joyce (November 5, 2005). 'Cutting edge — feature'. The Newcastle Herald. p. 8.
14. ^Sloane, Robert (2004). 'Duncan Stuart Beard'. In John Alberti (ed.). Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. p. 280. ISBN0-8143-2849-0.
15. ^ ^ab'NBC Stays Hot, Leads Sweeps Race'. The Associated Press. February 25, 1995. p. 10D. Retrieved on October 3, 2008.
16. ^Thomas B. Gold (2008). 'The Simpsons Global Mirror'(PDF). University of California Berkeley. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 7, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
17. ^Keefer, Ryan (August 29, 2005). 'DVD Verdict Review — The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season'. DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved September 26, 2008.
18. ^Orvted, John (July 5, 2007). 'Springfield's Best'. Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 13, 2007.
19. ^'Academy of Television Arts & Sciences'. emmys.org. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
20. ^'Simpsons' secret is eternal youth'. The Age. February 27, 2007. Retrieved March 7, 2007.
21. ^Schembri, Jim (July 26, 2007). 'What a difference a D'oh! makes'. The Age. p. 15.
22. ^Iyengar, Rishi (October 16, 2015). 'A Petition Wants to Call Australia's Currency 'Dollarydoos''. Time. Time. Retrieved February 11, 2018.

Bibliography

• Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN98141857. OCLC37796735. OL433519M.
• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Foreword by Douglas Coupland. (1st ed.). Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN978-0-679-31318-2. OCLC55682258.

External links[edit]

• 'Bart vs. Australia' at The Simpsons.com
• 'Bart vs. Australia episode capsule'. The Simpsons Archive.
• 'Bart vs. Australia' on IMDb
• 'Bart vs. Australia' at TV.com