Barting Over

"I can't count how many times your father's done something crazy like this"

"It's 300, Mom"

"I could have sworn it was 302"

"Barting Over" is the eleventh episode of the fourteenth season. This episode features Bart moving out and living on his own after an argument with Homer over an advertisement he starred in as a child. Jane Kaczmarek, Blink-182, and Tony Hawk guest starred in this episode.

This is the 300th episode in broadcasting order.

Synopsis
When Bart discovers Homer exploited him as a baby as the star in a baby mouthwash adverisment then stole all of the money, Bart is enraged and orders an emancipation. He stays in a loft where he meets skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

Full Story
During spring cleaning, Bart finds a box of old VHS tapes, one of which is titled "Marge and Homer get dirty". Thinking it to be a sex tape of their parents, Bart and Lisa watch it just to find that it was just them carving pumpkins for Halloween. Lisa reaches into the box and pulls out a tape that says "Bart sad". They play the video, and to their surprise, the video is an ad during the commercial break of the show Perfect Strangers and in the ad Bart acts as "Baby Stink Breath" in a baby mouthwash commercial. Realizing this, Lisa correctly adds an apostrophe that makes it "Bart's Ad." They continue to watch the commercial and in it, Bart is completely degraded and undignified. Lisa, unsurprisingly, bursts out laughing at how foolish he looked and makes fun of him.

That evening, Bart furiously confronts Marge and Homer demanding to know how they could have not told him about the commercials. Homer responds by claiming that he was intending to tell the truth on his deathbed. Marge tries to cheer Bart up by saying that he had a lot of fun making the commercials, but mistakenly mentions that he made a lot of money from them. Bart asks them where all the money he made went and Marge tries to convince him that Homer put it away in a trust fund. She becomes annoyed by Homer who interrupts her in the middle of a sentence and still continues her attempt to convince Bart until Homer interrupts her again and finally reveals that he spent all the money Bart made and there's nothing left. Bart is furious with him and demands to know why Homer spent the money he made from the commercial.

He explains he needed it to buy back incriminating photos of him dropping Bart from a hotel balcony and into an alleyway (ala Michael Jackson with the same incident in Germany) that were being used in a blackmail scheme to avoid scandal. Homer tries to then make Bart a little less annoyed by reversing the pictures and making it look like he stopped Bart from falling. Bart, unsurprisingly, is still furious and lunges at Homer, strangling him with his own belt. Marge pulls him off of Homer, and Bart says he's sick of having to put up with and seemingly accept Homer's constant disrespect towards him. Homer responds by telling Bart, that he can do whatever he wants with him until he's 18 and plans to "work him like a dog" when he's 17. Bart tells Milhouse about what happened and says he wished that there was a way to get back at Homer for mistreating him. Milhouse suggests that he uses a good lawyer to get back at Homer, when he mentions his mother, Luann, making Kirk cry each time she sends her lawyer after him. So Bart goes to see the Blue-haired lawyer at the Luvum and Burnham: Family Law Firm to fill out his testimony.

The next day, tension in the house does not die down as Bart constructs his dinner into a look-a-like of Homer's face and then viciously stabs it to pieces with his fork. Marge and Homer then try once again to to cheer him up: Marge by saying "Forgive and forget" and Homer with his "What Would Jesus Do" bracelet which he angrily tosses off because he thought "Jesus" was "Geppetto." They get a knock on the door and it's Bart's lawyer who serves Homer with a subpoena (with a side of bacon in order to get Homer to open the door). Marge is surprised and depressed that Bart is suing them. Bart assures his mom that he's got nothing against her, Lisa or Maggie, and that Homer's the only reason he's doing what he's doing--he's done dealing with Homer and his abusive ways. Homer defends himself by claiming his father was abusive to him while he was growing up. Instead of suing Abe for emancipation, however, Homer got revenge on his father by dropping him off at a cheap retirement home.

At the trial, Bart's case is made clear in a variety of ways (such as using a doll that is commonly used in child molestation cases and Homer's anger issues). At the verdict, Judge Constance Harm acknowledges that while Bart may be too young for emancipation, she's willing to make an exception for Bart and rules in his favor, making him legally able to move out of the Simpson home--she implied that the reason she made an exception for this case was because even she felt disgusted by Homer's treatment of Bart, as she said this when Homer, overconfident with the ruling being in his own favor, viciously proceeded to gloat to Bart before she says in a harsh and sickened tone "EXCEPT in this case," then claim that Bart "is as safe living with you as a crawdad in a gumbo shack." As a further result, he will receive half of Homer's paycheck until he is fully repaid for all of the stolen money. Furious by the loss, Homer is warned by Marge not to make things worse. Of course, he ignores her and responds, "I'll show YOU worse!" then tries to attack Judge Harm, but the bailiff club him and then drag him away for contempt of court.

The next day, Bart has packed up and says tearful goodbyes to everyone except Homer. Marge begs Bart to stay, and even go so far as to allow him to use swear words in the house (everything but the big three) however Bart refuses, as he's still mad at Homer. Bart's first night in his new apartment is scary, but he soon finds that Tony Hawk is living in the building and throwing a party with Blink-182. He and Hawk become friends, and Bart is content with his new life. Back at the Simpson house, Marge convinces Homer to apologize to Bart, and the family goes to meet him at his loft. Homer apologizes and requests Bart come home. Bart accepts the apology, but refuses to come home for the trouble Homer has caused him. He then tells them that he is going on Tony Hawk's Skewed Tour.

At the event, Homer meets up with Hawk and pleads with him to pretend to lose to him so that he can make Bart proud of him again. Being a father himself, Tony reluctantly agrees and gives Homer a modified skateboard, which does all the stunt work (Homer has Tony lift him onto the board, the only thing Homer would have to have done himself). Later, Homer challenges Tony to a skateboard match and does a good job, thanks to the skateboard. Tony, unhappy about being showed up by Homer, decides to "take out the thrash". They duel with their skateboards in mid-air, and Tony falls to the ground. Homer speaks to Bart and asks him to come home. Bart says that Homer still doesn't understand that this wasn't about him seeing his father as uncool; he left because he was tired of Homer not caring how he felt. Homer still doesn't get it but after a few words of wisdom in skater lingo from Tony, Homer finally understands; he promises Bart that he will never ill-treat him again. Lindsey Naegle approaches Homer and asks him to star in a commercial. Homer accepts so that he can get Bart fully repaid. At home, Homer is embarrassed when he watched the final product, an ad for an impotence drug (although he was more concerned over the fact that he'll lose his scalp as a side effect), but Bart told him that nobody will remember after fifty years.

Fifty years later, Homer is dead and his tombstone has an epitaph that says "impotency spokesman" on it. An elderly Nelson Muntz visit his grave and laughs at him. He soon passes out from the attempt to laugh at Homer's grave.

Production
This was advertised as the 300th episode.