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
The episode starts off where Lisa has baked some cupcakes for Miss Hoover. Both Bart and Homer try to eat one, but Lisa tells them that they are for Miss Hoover and doesn't let them have any. While on the bus to school, Bart tries to get Lisa to give him a cupcake, resorting to name-calling. Since he called her names, Lisa calmly refuses to give in. Swallowing his pride, Bart apologizes and attempts to praise his younger sister. Willing to be nice, Lisa tells Bart to 'open his mouth and close his eyes and he will receive a big surprise.' As he does so, a jolt from the bus causes one of her cupcakes to fall on the floor. She then picks it up and puts it in Bart's mouth. Unaware of where the cupcake had just been, Bart politely thanks Lisa for the snack.

Once off the school bus, one of Nelson's accomplices steals the box of cupcakes from Lisa. Bart tries to defend her by beating up the accomplice, but he steps on the box and squishes all of Lisa's cupcakes. Nelson Muntz himself comes over to Bart and Bart accidentally punches him in the nose. This results in Nelson receiving a bloody nose, and causing him to declare that Bart will be beat up at 3:15 at the flagpole. Lisa is proud that her brother stood up for her, but Bart is scared about having upset Nelson. Milhouse suggests that Bart tell Principal Skinner, but Bart tells him that it would violate the 'code of the schoolyard.' Bart tries to escape without Nelson seeing him, but his plan fails. He is pummeled several times, before being dumped into a trashcan, with the promise that the same treatment will happen the next day, and at the same time. Bart returns home upset, and after some coaxing, lets his parents know about his run-in with Nelson. Homer advises Bart to fight dirty, while Marge suggests that he try to reason with Nelson. Choosing Homer's advice, Homer gives Bart some tips on how to beat up Nelson. The next day, Bart once again gets beat up. When Lisa sees Bart coming home in a trash can, she tells him to turn to the toughest member of the Simpson family: Grampa Simpson.

After going to the Retirement Home to meet Grampa, 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 many other kids at school who have also been traumatized by Nelson and enlists them as troops.

For many days, Bart trains the other kids as troops and creates a plan to attack Nelson and his two accomplices. As Herman commands from the field, Bart leads his troops into battle. Cornering Nelson and his accomplices, they commence firing water balloons. Terrorized, the accomplices surrender. Nelson is taken prisoner, but he threatens to beat up Bart once more as soon as he is untied. Bart figures that since Nelson is still intent on hurting him, he just won't untie him. Though Nelson states a horrible truth: Bart will have to untie him sometime. Afterward, Herman drafts an armistice, which Bart and Nelson agree to sign. Marge enters with cupcakes, and peace prevails.

The episode ends with Bart giving a small "public service message," denouncing wars as being neither fun nor glamorous. He also states that there are no good wars (except for "The American Revolution," "World War II," and "The Star Wars Trilogy"), and that the local library has more books about war if kids want to learn more about them (promising some of the books contain 'cool, gory pictures'). Bart finishes the episode by flashing a peace sign.

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.

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".