Bart vs. Australia
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "Bart vs. Australia" | |
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| Episode no. | 119 |
| Prod. code | 2F13 |
| Orig. Airdate | February 19, 1995 |
| Writer(s) | Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein |
| Director | Wesley Archer |
| Chalkboard | "I will not hang donuts on my person" |
| Couch gag | The family swims to the couch |
| Guest star(s) | Phil Hartman as Evan Conover |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 6 September 4, 1994 – May 21, 1995 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"Bart vs. Australia" is the 16th episode of The Simpsons' sixth season; the episode marks the first time the family has visited another country. While some people in Australia were offended by this episode[citation needed], it was generally received there in the light hearted way it was intended to be.
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[edit] Synopsis
The episode begins with a bathroom products race between Bart and Lisa in the bathroom sink. Lisa wins and Bart suggests she won because her shampoo was in the "inner lane" to his toothpaste. Lisa explains the Coriolis Effect to Bart (not entirely correctly), but he does not believe her. He makes collect calls around the world until he calls an Australian boy, and asks him about which way the water drains. The line is kept open for several hours. When Bart does not hang up, the boy's father is billed $900.00 ("Nine hundred dollareydoos"). The man wants Bart to pay, but Bart mocks him. Bart receives dozens of collection letters in the mail, but does nothing about them.
Eventually, Australia indicts Bart for fraud. The United States State Department wants to send him to prison, but settles upon having Bart personally apologize in Australia. The family is sent to Australia, where they start exploring the culture. Bart makes his apology, but they want to give the additional punishment of a boot to his buttocks (a parody of the Michael P. Fay caning incident in Singapore). Bart and Homer escape the booting and they try to run back to the embassy. Bart agrees to have them do the booting anyway, but as he is about to receive his punishment, he moons the Australians. The Simpson family leaves the outraged country in a helicopter in a scene similar to the Fall of Saigon. There's a subplot through the episode in which Bart brings his pet frog past customs into Australia where it reproduces and spreads rapidly throughout the country eventually ruining its ecology (a reference to the actual introduction of non-native Cane Toads into Australia and similar events like the famous Australian rabbit plague). As the family is being flown home they happily remark upon the destruction that can be caused by introducing a foreign species into a new environment ... as the camera pans out to reveal a koala hanging from one of the helicopter's struts.
[edit] Factual inaccuracies
- The supposed scientific knowledge that drains flow differently in the Southern Hemisphere—the Coriolis effect—is actually a myth.
- The Australian prime minister is referred to as "Andy". Australia's prime minister in 1995 was Paul Keating.
- No inscription appears above the entry of Parliament House in Canberra, as seen in the episode with a typo.
- Australia is portayed in a very stereotypical way in this episode. It portays Australia as being uncivilised and only having rural areas. In actual facts, Australia is nothing like the way it was portayed in this episode. Parliment house is in Canberra which is a city, not a country town. Plus if they came in by aeroplane they would have landed in either Melbourne or Sydney both of which are major Australian cities with residential, industrial and business areas.
[edit] Quotes
- Bart: I can't get a straight answer out of this crazy hemisphere. (he calls another number and reaches a car phone in Argentina)
Adolf Hitler: Eine Minuten, eine Minuten! Ach! Das Wagen-phone ist ein...Nuisancephone!
Man (riding past Hitler on a bicycle giving Nazi salute): Buenas noches, mein Führer!
Hitler: Ja, ja. - Homer: (looking at globe) There it is! Aus-tra-li-a. I'll be damned. (laughs) Look at this country! "U-R-Gay!"
- Conover: Mr. Simpson, shush! Disparaging the boot is a bootable offense! It's one of their proudest traditions! (he points it out using the flag of Australia, which inaccurately shows a boot kicking the buttocks)
- Lisa: Bart, water will only go the other way in the Southern Hemisphere.
Bart: What the hell is the Southern Hemisphere?
Lisa: Haven't you ever looked at your globe? (tears off wrapping paper on a gift with a tag reading "Happy Birthday! Love Grampa" on it). See, the Southern Hemisphere is made up of everything below the equ... (looks at Bart, who is staring blankly) ...this line.
Bart: So say in Argentina, and Rand McNally (pointing at Rand McNally logo on globe), all their water goes backwards?
Lisa: Uh-huh. (rolling her eyes) In fact, in Rand McNally, people wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people.
Bart: (impressed) Cool! - Marge: I'll just have a cup of coffee.
Bartender: Beer it is.
Marge: No, I said coffee.
Bartender: Beer.
Marge: Cof-fee.
Bartender: (frowning, confused) Be-er.
Marge: (spells) C-O...
Bartender: (honestly trying, but failing) B-E... - Bart: I can't get a straight answer out of this crazy hemisphere!
- Aide: Please to repeat again and I will translating for the el Presidente.
Bart: [slowly] Which way does the water turn in your toilet?
Aide: [in Spanish] He says the tide is turning!
Presidente: [in Spanish] Ay, caramba! Then the rebels will soon take the capital. I must flee! [dives out window] - Bart: Hey, I think I hear a dingo eating your baby.
- Homer: Hey, do we get to land on an aircraft carrier?
Helicopter pilot: No, sir, the closest vessel is the USS Walter Mondale. It's a laundry ship. They'll take you the rest of the way. - Australian man: You call that a knife? This is a knife!
Bart: That's not a knife. That's a spoon.
Australian man: Alright, alright, you win. Heh. I see you've played knifey-spooney before. - Homer: When will you Australians learn? In America, we stopped using corporal punishment, and things have never been better. The streets are safe. Old people strut confidently in the darkest alleys. And the weak and nerdy are admired for their computer-programming abilities. So, like us, let your children run wild and free! Because, as the old saying goes, "let your children run wild and free".
- Marge: We have those in America; we call them bull frogs.
Australian Teen: 'Bull frogs?' That's an odd name. I'd have called them 'chazwuzzers.' - Marge: (after Bart moons the Australian Government, with "Don't tread on me" written on his behind) Bart, I really appreciate your patriotism, but I wish you would have done something a little more tasteful.
Lisa: I'm impressed you were able to write so legibly on your own butt! - Bart: (Leaving the embassy, passing a sign saying 'Welcome to Australia') Hey, G. I. Joe, your sign's broken. We're already in Australia.
Marine: Actually, sir, the embassy is considered American soil, sir!.
Homer: Hey, look, boy. (starts jumping over the line) Now I'm in Australia. Now I'm in America. Australia! America!
Bart: We get it, Dad.
Homer: Australia! America! Australia! America!
Marine: (Hits Homer hard in the face) In America, we do not tolerate that kind of crap, sir!
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- "Bart vs. Australia" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
