Bart the General

"Bart the General" is the fifth full length episode of The Simpsons ' first season, which premiered on the Fox network on February 4, 1990. The episode deals with Bart's troubles with the school bully, Nelson Muntz. Bart chooses to go to war with Nelson and this lead cultural references of classic war movies. The episode written by John Swartzwelder and directed by David Silverman.

Plot
Bart gets into a fight with Nelson Muntz, the school bully, while protecting the cupcakes that Lisa baked for Miss Hoover. Since Bart accidentally causes Nelson to get a bloody nose, Nelson beats up Bart after school and warns him to expect the same treatment the following day. At home, Homer advises Bart to fight dirty, while Marge suggests that he try to reason with Nelson. Choosing Homer's advice, Bart confronts Nelson, but is beaten up again. This time, he turns to the toughest member of the Simpson family, Grampa Simpson.

Grampa introduces Bart to Herman, a crazed veteran who runs an army surplus store. Herman declares war on Nelson and instructs Bart on a full-assault strategy. Bart gathers other kids at school who have been traumatized by Nelson and enlists them as troops. As Herman commands from the field, Bart leads them into battle. Cornering Nelson and his thugs, they commence firing water balloons.

Terrorized, the thugs surrender. Nelson is taken prisoner, but he threatens to kill Bart as soon as he is untied. Afterwards, Herman drafts an armistice, which Bart and Nelson agree to sign. Marge enters with cupcakes, and peace prevails.

Production
This episode was running too long to use the normal opening sequence. It did therefore not feature a chalkboard gag or a couch gag. Instead they just cut to image of the Simpson house. David Silverman was the director and was kind of stressed, because he was doing storyboards for this episode while also directing "Bart the Genius". Originally, he had planned to use the song "War" by Edwin Starr in the episode. The plans were dropped, when they decided that the song did not really fit the story. The episode had problems with the censors, who did not want the characters to say "family jewels" on prime time television. The producers ignored the notes and "family jewels" remained in the episode.

Two new characters were introduced in this episode. The first one is Nelson Muntz, who remains a frequently used recurring character. The second is Herman who has been used less. The design of Herman except for only having one arm was inspired by the look of the writer John Swartzwelder. The voice was partly inspired by George H. W. Bush and performed by Harry Shearer. The original idea with Herman was that every time he would be shown he would have a different story to why he only has one arm.

Cultural references
The episode featured several references to war films. Several lines of dialogue, Bart slapping one of his soldiers for "being a disgrace" and the music are lifted directly from the film Patton from 1970. Fox owned the rights to this film, so it was no problem to use the soundtrack. The marching sequence is a nod to Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket from 1986. and the The Longest Day from 1962 is also referenced.

Reception
Matt Groening notes on the commentary track that he finds it strange how controversial this episode seemed at the time of its release. Today, they would go a lot further and to him this episode now seems harmless. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said: "Some good lines and setpieces aside - we love Bart's fantasy of death at Nelson's hands - this episode nevertheless feels a bit unsure of itself, particularly towards the end." In a DVD review of the first season David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3/5 and adds "Another episode that helped to propel Bart's popularity into the stratosphere ...".

Use in scientific research
"Bart the General" and Seinfeld ' s "The Tape" were used in a Dartmouth College experiment to study brain activity in relation to humorous moments in television shows. The results were published in a 2004 issue of the academic journal Neurolmage. The researchers noted, "During moments of humor detection, significant [brain] activation was noted in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus ... and left inferior frontal gyrus".

Trivia

 * Grandpa's list of words he does not want to hear on television again:
 * 1) Family Jewels (meaning men's testicles)
 * 2) Horny
 * 3) Bra
 * The first episode we see the retirement home where Grandpa Simpson lives.
 * The first episode we see Bart cry, Homer then proceeds to dry his tears with a hairdryer.
 * During their first "fight," Nelson hits Bart twelve times in the face before he knocks Bart out.
 * Lisa calls her teacher "Mrs. Hoover" instead of "Miss Hoover."

Errors

 * When Bart's army is attacking Nelson, there are a lot more kids attacking Nelson then there were training with Bart.
 * At the start when the bully takes the cupcakes, you can see that after he has started eating them there are 4 left in the box. Just before he shuts the lid to drop it, you can just see the tops of 6 cupcakes.
 * When Bart declares war on Nelson, Herman uses the declaration from the Franco-Prussian war and puts "Bart" in place of "Otto Von Bismarck". Bismarck didn't declare the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon III of France did. A small error, maybe, but something that a war buff like Herman should know.
 * When Grandpa Simpson is typewriting a letter in his room, the words he's spelling out loud don't match his fingers hitting the keys.
 * When Bart enters the tree house after being beaten up, he puts his hat on a peg behind him. In some later shots at an angle you can just see the hat behind him. In the shots from directly in front of Bart, the hat is not on the peg.
 * When Bart is training up his army, the colours of the kid's tops keep changing between shots.

Episode Quotes

 * Weasel #1: Nelson, y-you're bleeding.
 * Nelson: Naw, happens all the time, somebody else's blood splatters on me. [realizes his nose is bleeding] Hey, wait a minute... you're right! [to Bart] You made me bleed my own blood.




 * [The school bell rings.]
 * Principal Skinner: Uh oh, there's your bell. Come along, now, all of you. No dawdling, now.
 * Nelson: [to Bart] I'll get you after school, man.
 * Bart: But...
 * Principal Skinner: Oh, no, no, no. He'll get you after school, son. Now hurry up, it's time for class.
 * Bart: But...
 * Principal Skinner: Scoot, young Simpson. There's learning afoot!




 * Bart: Nelson, it was all a mistake. This is how it happened, man. Listen up; you may get a kick out of it. My sister was baking cupcakes and...
 * Nelson: I'll see you at the flagpole at 3:15.
 * Weasel #1: And you better be prompt!
 * Weasel #2: He has four other beatings scheduled this afternoon.




 * Marge: Well, Bart, I hope you're going straight to the principal about this!
 * Bart: I guess I could do that.
 * Homer: What? And violate the code of the schoolyard? I'd rather Bart die!
 * Marge: What on earth are you talking about, Homer?
 * Homer: The code of the schoolyard, Marge! The rules that teach a boy how to be a man! Let's see; don't tattle, always make fun of those different from you, never say anything unless you're sure everyone feel exactly the same way you do.




 * Grampa: [writing] I am disgusted with the way old people are depicted on television. We are not all vibrant, fun-loving sex maniacs. Many of us are bitter, resentful individuals, who remember the good old days, when entertainment was bland and inoffensive.




 * Herman: The key to Springfield has always been Elm Street. The Greeks knew it. The Carthaginians knew it. Now you know it.




 * Herman: First you'll need a declaration of war. I've got one here, just have to change the name from "Otto von Bismarck" to "Bart Simpson"




 * Herman: Strategy. Hmm. How many men do you have?
 * Bart: None.
 * Herman: You'll need more.




 * [Bart and other neighborhood children march towards Nelson, singing]
 * Bart: I got a B in arithmetic!
 * Children: I got a B in arithmetic
 * Bart: Would-a got an A, but I was sick!
 * Children: Would-a got an A, but I was sick
 * Bart: In English class I did the best!
 * Children: In English class I did the best
 * Bart: Because I cheated on the test!
 * Children: Because I cheated on the test
 * Bart: We are happy, we are merry
 * Children: We are happy, we are merry
 * Bart: We got a rhyming dictionary
 * Children: We got a rhyming dictionary
 * Bart: Sound off!
 * Children: One, two
 * Bart: I can't hear you!
 * Children: Three, four!




 * Grampa: Bart, you can push them out of a plane, you can march them off a cliff, you can send them off to die on some God-forsaken rock. But for some reason, you can't slap them. Now apologize to that boy immediately.




 * Herman: When he leaves the Kwik-E-Mart, we start the saturation bombing. You got the water balloons?
 * Bart: Two hundred rounds, sir. Is it okay if they say "Happy Birthday" on the side?
 * Herman: Well, I'd rather they say "Death from Above," but I guess we're stuck.




 * Grampa: I thought I'd never hear the screams of pain or see the look of terror in a young man's eyes. Thank heaven for children.




 * Bart: [to viewers] Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners; only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: the American Revolution, World War II, and the Star Wars Trilogy. If you'd like to learn more about war, there's lots of books in your local library, many of them with cool gory pictures.

Complete List of Characters

 * Homer Simpson
 * Marge Simpson
 * Bart Simpson
 * Lisa Simpson
 * Maggie Simpson
 * Abe Simpson
 * Principal Seymour Skinner
 * Otto Mann
 * Milhouse Van Houten
 * Nelson Muntz
 * Nelson’s Weasels
 * Richard
 * Lewis
 * Martin Prince
 * Jasper Beardley
 * Crazy Old Man
 * Herman