They Saved Lisa's Brain

"They Saved Lisa's Brain" is the twenty-second episode of the tenth season. The episodes features Lisa joining a group called "MENSA" for Springfield's most intelligent.

Plot
The citizens of Springfield take part in a contest hosted by KBBL Radio to see who can do the stupidest thing. Lisa who is forced by Marge to watch is very disgusted by this as it shows how dumb the town is, especially with participants like Bart swallowing various objects and Homer singing while dressed in a suit made of popcorn kernels and popping them with hair dryers. After the judges reveal the winner, themselves for watching the contestants make spectecles of themselves the participants revolt and start a riot. Lisa is disgusted and writes a letter to the newspaper criticizing the town's lack of refinement. Lisa's letter is published but is annoyed when no one will read it (Homer would rather sit still and do nothing than read her article). She receives a letter to go to a house for a secret meeting. Upon visiting the place, she is welcomed as a member of Springfields Mensa chapter, a group of highly intelligent people.

During a recreation of the renaissance in Springfield Park, their gazebo is unrightfully being used by Lenny, Carl, Barney who stand around drinking and tell Dr Hibbert to beat it when he says that Mensa booked the gazebo, when they complain to Chief Wiggum he ignores them and joins the others in drinking. Outraged that, as Hibbert put it "they live in a town were the smartest have no power and the stupidest run everything", they confront Mayor Quimby for their grievances, who mistakenly thinks they found he stole lottery money flees town indefinitely. Now without a leader, they consult the city's constitution, which allows for the most educated citizens to run office on his behalf. The newly appointed leader then takes this opportunity to make beneficent changes to Springfield, including euphemizing jury duty to "the Justice Squadron" to encourage more people to attend, remove the green light from the traffic lights and implementing clocks to run on the metric system. However, their governance starts crumbling when each member selfishly decides to pass laws on their own without consulting with the others. During a town meeting in the park, they openly argue about which laws ought to be passed, when Steven Hawking makes a surprise visit and criticizes their falling utopia. The town falls into a riot and Hawking reassures Lisa that sometimes even the most intelligent are fallible, Except him of course. Marge tell's Lisa that everyone has a differant idea of the perfect world, only to be caught by Hawking reading that message of his computer screen.

In the subplot, Homer steals a prize from the gross-out contest and gets a coupon for a free pornographic photo session. He shows his pictures to Marge, but to his dismay, she is more fascinated by the background setting than Homer's sex appeal.

Production
This episode marks the first appearance of Lindsey Naegle, who had previously appeared in other episodes (The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show and Girly Edition), but as unnamed network executive.

Cultural references
The title of the this episode is a reference to the sci-fi movie, They Saved Hitler's Brain.

Homer Simpson mistakes Steven Hawking for Larry Flynt, the founder of Hustler Magazine, who was stricken to a wheelchair because of an assassination attempt.

Trivia

 * In the dog track scene, Mayor Quimby can be seen in the stands, even though he earlier fled Springfield thinking MENSA had dirt on his corruption.