Lisa the Vegetarian

"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. This episode establishes Lisa's status as a vegetarian, an idea that was first hinted in the episode "Lisa's Wedding".The episode featured guest star Paul McCartney. One of Paul McCartney's stipulations for doing the guest spot was that Lisa's conversion to vegetarianism be a permanent one. Thus, it is an instance of continuity in the Simpsons universe that has been strictly held to.

Synopsis
Grampa and the Simpsons visit Storytown Village, which is a boring amusement park for 1-7 1/2 year olds. (Marge had previously said that the trip would be fun for everyone, including Lisa who is eight.) They also visit the park's petting zoo and are immediately enraptured as they see one little lamb after another, each one more absurdly adorable than the one before it. That night, Marge serves lamb for dinner, and Lisa cannot eat it. She keeps hearing the bleating voice of the lambs at the petting zoo--"Li-i-i-sa, I thought you lo-o-o-ved me-e-eee!" Lisa pushes her plate away, crying, "I can't eat this. I can't eat a poor little lamb!" Naturally Homer notes the distinction between lamb, and a lamb. Her mother, trying to help, offers up rump roast, chicken breast, and hot dogs instead, but Lisa suddenly makes the connection between these dishes and their living counterparts. "No I can't! I can't eat any of them!"

At school, her newfound vegetarianism becomes a problem when she is almost forced to dissect a live worm who she imagines pleading, "Li-i-isa, what did I ever do to you-u-u-u?" She's a little confused ("Why does it talk like a lamb?") but no less committed to her cause, and so she refuses to dissect it. At lunch, the only vegetarian option is a hot dog bun, which Lunchlady Doris proclaims "rich in bunly goodness". (In the Spanish dubbed version, Doris claims it's "rich in wheat and mustard".) Her caustic questioning of the exact point when Doris lost her enthusiasm for her job results in the second secret 'independent thought alarm' she's triggered that day, prompting Principal Skinner to have all colored chalk removed from the classrooms, and to show the students a propaganda film depicting why meat-eating is a good thing (with the rather dubious assertion that cows consider eating humans). Homer then shows off his pig-shaped invitations, which advertise his "BBBQ," with the extra "B" for "BYOBB." When Bart asks what the extra "B" is for there, Homer snaps back "That's a typo!" At home her newfound vegetarian stance is not tolerated or understood very well either, with Homer and Bart both mocking her for rejecting meat. Homer and Bart even start a dance line, singing "You don't win friends with salad," when Lisa requests that something other than the traditional meat be served at Homer's upcoming barbecue.

Meanwhile, Homer hosts his barbecue complete with roast pig. Lisa - who is becoming increasingly self-righteous regarding her vegetarianism - brings gazpacho but is laughed out of the yard and into her room, where she sulks on her bed and resents the partygoers for rubbing their carnivorous habits "in [her] face". Just then, a hamburger haphazardly flipped by Homer for Bart flies through her window and lands on her face.

Enraged, Lisa climbs aboard a riding mower, and drives away with the roast pig in tow. Homer and Bart chase after her, but she pushes the pig off a slope and they're too late. The pig rolls through bushes, into the river, and is shot into the air by a hydroelectric dam's suction.

Meanwhile, Mr. Burns is about to sign a million-dollar check for a donation to a local charity. He says that he will sign it when pigs fly - just then, the roast pig flies into view. Burns is utterly shocked, but still refuses to donate the money.

Back at home, Homer scolds Lisa for ruining his barbeque and sends her to her room, but she rebukes him for serving meat. Lisa and Homer are too angry to speak to one another. They fight and she leaves the house. While walking, she is mocked by classmates and hit with a barrage of meat-related advertisements (Sherri and Terri taunt, "Look at Mrs. Potato Head! She has a head made out of lettuce!", giggling). The pressures to conform to an omnivorous society finally become too great, prompting Lisa to grab a hot dog off of the grill at the Kwik-E-Mart, take a bite, and shout, "There! Is everybody happy now?"

However, Apu - himself a vegan - reveals that she has, in fact, eaten a tofu dog, and takes her through a secret passageway to the Kwik-E-Mart roof to meet guest stars Paul and Linda McCartney. One brief heart-to-heart later, Lisa is committed once more to vegetarianism. She also learns an important lesson from Apu: "I learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can influence people without badgering them always."

Thus inspired, she returns home to make up with her father, and finds him in the street shouting her name, exposing his fear of being viewed as a bad father. Lisa apologizes to Homer, admitting she had no right to ruin his barbecue; he forgives her and offers her "a piggyback--I mean, a veggieback ride."

Cultural references
+ The pig that Homer roasts and blasts into the air, flying over the nuclear power plant, is a direct reference to the Pink Floyd's Animals album cover, which shows a pig flying over London's Battersea Power Station (see also Pink Floyd pigs). + I Spit on Your Grave, a notorious exploitation film, is listed on the billboard for the drive-in cinema. + The version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" that plays over the end credits is an original mix by the Simpsons staff that, when played backwards, contains snippets of Paul McCartney reciting a recipe for lentil soup – a throwback to an earlier gag. One of the backwards snippets says "Oh, and by the way, I'm alive." - a reference to the Paul is dead theory. The recited recipe can be found on the "Extras" section on Disc 1 of The Simpsons: Complete Season 7 (box set).

Beatles references
+ Numerous references to the Beatles are present in the episode. Apu claims to have met Paul during the Maharshi period. The Beatles' visit to this guru in India was a big media story in 1967. Apu then claims to have been called "The Fifth Beatle" (mispronouncing it to rhyme with "Seattle"), a claim which Paul does not seem to agree with. The way Apu pronounces Beatles is a reference to how the antagonists in the movie Help! say it. + Paul McCartney asks, "She's leaving home?" referencing the song of the same title from The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. + Lisa's remark, "Wow! Paul McCartney. I learned about you in history class", is a joke about the enormous cultural importance of the Beatles. + When Lisa asks Paul "Where's your wife Linda?", Linda appears and says "I'm right here - whenever we're in Springfield, we like to spend time in Apu's garden in the shade!" referencing the Beatles song "Octopus' Garden" from the album Abbey Road.

Reception
MSNBC listed the episode as their second favorite in the show. They called the “You don’t win friends with salad” song "one of those archetypal “Simpsons” moments, one in which the writers hit a joke so long that it goes from funny to unfunny and back to funny again."