"Bart Gets an Elephant" is the seventeenth episode of Season 5.
Synopsis[]
While being forced to stay in and clean the house, Bart wins a radio contest and picks the gag prize (a full-grown African elephant) over the cash prize ($10,000), which puts the family in financial turmoil once again.
Full Story []
Marge wakes up to a messy house and, just as Bart, Lisa, and Homer leave, declares that all of them aren't going anywhere until the entire house is clean. During the cleaning day, Lisa is upset that she's not out with her jazz band friends (and then-President Bill Clinton, complete with his Secret Service agents); Homer tries to clean the basement with a leaf blower, then uses too many cleaning products and hallucinates that the mascots are attacking him; and Bart scrubs the "American Gothic" painting to the point that it has a message from Grant Wood himself ("If you can read this, you've scrubbed too hard"). KBBL announces a radio contest where the first one to call KBBL and say, "KBBL is going to give me something stupid" wins either a full-grown African elephant or $10,000 cash. Bart tries to call the number, only to hang up on Grampa Simpson having heart palpitations.
At the end of the day, the house is sparkling, while Homer and the kids are dirty and exhausted. Marge tells them they can do whatever they want now, but Homer and the kids, having missed out on the activities they wanted to do that day (Bart was going to go to a ravine to see if a dead Martian was there, Lisa was going to jam with her jazz band friends, and Homer was going to go to a beer-drinking contest), go in the kitchen and mess it up again. KBBL is still searching for a winner, but only get Chief Wiggum calling for help just before Snake tasers him. While Bart is eating the chocolate ice cream from a carton of Neapolitan ice cream, Bart manages to swipe the phone from Homer's hands, say, "KBBL is going to give me something stupid!", and win the radio contest. Bart unexpectedly picks the elephant, this surprises his parents as well as Bill and Marty, who (understandably) believed that no one would ever actually take the gag prize, and thus have no elephant to give away. Instead, they offer Bart the money and a variety of other prizes, all of which he refuses, saying that he only wants the elephant, they just throw him out. Word spreads throughout town about Bill and Marty's refusal to give Bart the elephant, KBBL's ratings are soon at an all time low and the studio receives many angry letters and bombs, prompting their employer to give them a choice: either arrange for the delivery of the elephant, or lose their jobs to a DJ machine. Not wanting to lose their jobs, they select on the former option.
Kids riding Stampy
Bart names his new elephant Stampy and Homer ties him to a post in the backyard. Lisa complains that it's cruel to keep animals like elephants as prisoners, while Homer's concerned that Stampy will eat him out of house and home. They give Stampy peanuts but becomes exhausted due to a peanut only diet so they take him to the arboretum where he strips the trees clean. In an effort to offset food costs, Bart and Homer exhibit Stampy by charging customers to see and ride him, but fail to earn enough to cover even one day's food bill. The customers all flee after Homer raises their prices to exorbitant levels. Homer declares they can't afford the elephant and must sell him, much to Bart's dismay. The family is visited by a representative of a game reserve, who says their acres of open land similar to the AfricanSavannah would be a good habitat for the elephant to live in. However, Homer immediately dismisses this after the representative explains that the family won't receive any money for Stampy since the reserve itself is a nonprofit organization (as they lost so much money just to care for Stampy).
Mr. Blackheart is an ivory dealer
A wildlife poacher named Mr. Blackheart then offers to buy Stampy. Homer wants to take the money, but Bart and Lisa are against the idea, especially after Mr. Blackheart openly admits to being an ivory dealer. Homer and Mr. Blackheart reach a deal, but Bart and Stampy run off, wreaking havoc throughout Springfield, and are soon nowhere to be found. The family begins searching and finds them at the Springfield Tar Pits, where Homer still plans to sell Stampy to the ivory dealer for the money. Bart and Lisa then ask if Homer would like to be sold to an ivory dealer himself, to which Homer responds positively, before finding out that he is stuck in one of the tar pits. Bart orders Stampy to free Homer, to which he does (after first pulling out Barney Gumble). A grateful Homer finally agrees to donate the elephant to the wildlife reserve.
While at the reserve, Stampy starts headbutting the other elephants, cheered on by Bart. When Marge expresses confusion by this, thinking that Stampy's unhappy, the representative explains that Stampy's likely very happy and explains further by pointing out how, in many ways, animals are a lot like humans: some animals act badly because they have had a hard life (such as from being mistreated) but, like some humans, some animals are just jerks (which he says while Homer is headbutting him, presumably still outraged over not getting any money).
