Bart Sells His Soul

Get groceries delivered to your door and as fast as an hour with. They handpicked fresh groceries from your local store and let you shop multiple stores in a single order user link to get free delivery on your first order. Over $35. Just visit cart. Does Simpson Siblings dot com or check out the link in the description.

Hey everybody. I'm Sari and I'm Shaun and we're the Simpson Siblings. We talk about the Simpsons. And today's episode.

Oh, that's a great

start. So, um, we decided that when it's each of our birthdays, we get to choose an episode. No questions asked don't you ask me any questions about this choice? Why? Because it's no questions asked. Cause usually we choose these episodes together. So I figured, you know, it's, it's my birthday. It's near my birthday. And I am in age and yeah, since it is the anniversary of my birth, I chose Bart sells his soul, which is my all time favorite Simpsons,

which is a good choice too.

Yes, it's always a good decision. Season seven episode four, originally aired October 8th, 1995.

And we opened with the chalkboard scene with Bart writing. I am not a lean mean spitting machine. And then with the couch gag, we have them all coming in on the Shriner cars. They're little, little high-pitched beep on the cars coming into place. And I saw those couch gags. Like there's not much behind them story-wise but they just make me smile.

All right. So there's so much to say about this opening. It's it's such a classic, it's beautiful in so many ways. So this is the, in the garden of Eden. By ion butterfly. And if you do not know the original song, it is in a gada Devita by iron butterfly. And it's 16 minutes long. That's about all you have to know about this song is that it is a long

song and complicated, and there's

like multiple drum solos in the middle of it. And they're singing it at church. And it's just perfect. And just

the way that like Reverend love Joyce says in the garden of Eden I, Ron

and his, this may be rock and or roll and.

Like people in the congregation and their lighters and organist is really getting into

it. And then the, the minutes pass and they all kind of start getting more and more tired. And I just, the expressions on their faces when they're singing. That's just some great animation

right there. Yeah. Cause they do like a little, pop-up like emphasis on certain souls. They all do it. And. Oh, that's not even related to much of the, it gets the story kicked off, but yeah, it's just so iconic and burned into our memories. Yup.

Yup. Oh my gosh. And of course you had at the ending with that dah, dah, dah.

I don't know if she pass it. They don't really say, but I'm pretty sure she dies on the Oregon. I never thought of

it that way. I just thought she passed out. I think she does so often. Yeah. I don't know, maybe she doesn't. I need to look into this.

And I like to, at the beginning of the scene, they show that the church on the outside, in this, the sciences, no shoes, no shirt, no salvation.

Hear some pretty great church signs in the show. Oh man. And of course, uh, this all leads to this scene where they're all kind of interrogating the kids to figure out who replaced the hymns. And that's that's. The other thing is that they go on with this fake him for so long, and nobody notices that this is the wrong him until like the whole song's over that's 16 minutes long. Nobody stops to say. Wait a

second. This sounds familiar.

Although Homer does say that they used to make out to that ham. So yeah, they do the eights. Yeah. But they don't, there's no logic to it, which is what makes it fantastic. So they're interrogating all the kids. And they have that whole spiel of about going to hell for it and everything, which in a way is a good lead in to sort of the subject of the episode. Yeah. Yeah. Eat notch, but burning hot coals and drink notch, but burning hot coals. Oh, that's great.

Oh, and then they're talking about. W w was it, they started talking about their soul. Cause I had the line written down, but I can't remember what the context was when they said, oh, that's just something they may have to scare kids like the boogeyman or Michael Jackson. Yeah.

Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah. Cause um, Milhous ends up, uh, ratting him out and um, and I love that he sort of ties Millhouse and with it, he's like you come to snitch. And they basically have this little sort of kid's version of an existential conversation just about the existence of a soul. And I love mill houses, confidence in his theories because he, because Bart says, well, what if you die in a summery? Oh, it could swim.

And it's, and it's not just that. He's worked out that question before. Oh

yeah. He's thought about all of this. And it's almost like hearing two kids just talk about their favorite superheroes, like who would win in. He's just, I love his confidence in that, and that of course ends up with Bart, agreeing to sell him his soul for $5. And I love how quickly. The setup is for this, that it's just right now. Like I, I looked at the clock and it was maybe two or three minutes in, and you've got your whole setup of the plot of this episode.

Well, it's I was thinking too. It's funny how Milhouse is usually such a loyal friend to Bart. Except for when it comes down to buying his soul, it's something that, cause like you said, he's so confident in everything he believes, this is a real transaction taking place in so willing to take his best friend's soul, which is kind of a little out of character for Millhouse. But, but you know, Bart's kind of done a lot to him in the past that maybe it's a bit

of payback. Maybe it is. I didn't think about it that way. So Milhouse has this soul on a written down on a piece of paper and he buys it for $5 and then we cut to the B plot, which is also set up very quickly.

It's also very

good. Yes. We immediately have Dr. Hebert and his family trying to play it, find a place to eat. Pretty, pretty simple setup. And. We have. So I've done this for a couple episodes. Now. I need to find a good term for it. This is going to be my long direct line reading of the episode. Professor VJ. Cornucopias fantastic food memoriam and great American steak. That kills me every time. It's a perfect line

reading and the way he says it, it flows smooth. You know, the voice actor had to practice that over and over again, please. Oh, some phatic and positive about it. He

wants to eat at this place. It sounds fantastic. I don't even know, like that's a lot of syllables for a restaurant name,

but, well, we've had a couple of times just in our podcast where we hear. The quotes that we read, something like that. And it takes up like two lines on the paper. Like they'd love the

rambling names. This is three lines of, of handwriting for me. And it's only one real word. It's it's one noun, but it makes up, you know, 15 words. It's it's beautiful. Yeah. It's beautiful. Okay. So Dr. Hibbert and his family go into most. And I, for some reason they think this is going to be a family restaurant. He's like, oh, I haven't heard of this place. And, um, I think we get the iconic line from his daughter. This place smells like.

how many different things has Moses. He's always remodeling. Like there was the prohibition one where it was the pet shop

and then this one, and it's been burned

down and torn down destroyed. Didn't

he do a re a remodeling when it was flaming.

Yeah, I turned it into a club

and then I know there's a newer one where he makes it into like a modern bar. And then there's another one where he makes it into a gay bar.

And there's another one where at the end, he like burns it down.

It's it's been a lot, you know, what you want to be a fun episode is do a history of just most

bar. That would be fun digging, but we can find some fun stuff.

Cause that's been a lot of stuff. Especially. I mean, I'm sure it's well, and then you also have this wasn't something that actually happened, but I'm thinking of the, um, when the town gets destroyed and they have like, uh, a thing of what it'll look like from the, the, oh, and it just says most bar he's like, oh God. Oh, that's great. All right. Well, we're getting off topic now.

you

know, I won't, because this is my birthday episode. Dang. You can rant on your birthday and I'm just, I'm just kidding. All right. So we've got Bart spending is $5.

I'm sorry, every time you say $5, I want to say, get out. Yeah.

Thank chewy pretzels here. Um, so yeah, he, he spends his $5 and I don't know. Do they still have these things? And I think they still do the dinette, but the dinosaur, well, in this episode, it's a dinosaur. Yeah.

I've seen them at like dollar stores.

They're basically just sponges that you put water on and

they're pressed in the little capsule that dissolves

they're extremely underwhelmed. And Bart has this imagination that, you know, it's going to attack Lisa and it's going to be this big scene and it just kind of rolls down the sidewalk.

I just love what was it that Lisa said, oh, it's getting gross water on me or something.

And I align that I love from Lisa. I love it when Lisa shows little portions of just being a regular kid, because when she says where'd you get five bucks, I want five bucks.

And she's just like, she just wants $5 to buy something stupid. But yeah, she goes from being the super mature. Oh, five bucks. Yeah.

She's she's still got some regular kid in her and that's, that's cool. I love those little snippets. And of course, uh, Bart explains what he did about selling his soul. And Lisa goes into this whole rant about how he shouldn't have done that. Um, and then we start seeing sort of the ramifications of that.

mark, Todd and Todd,

thank you. Door to door. And then we have the cooler where his, his, um, breath doesn't show up on the cooler and they never really explained within the story. If that's something that's actually happening to him or if it's all in his head and I kind like that, they don't explain it well.

What is the Jimbo that's there with the breath. He even comments on it and says, dude, you have no breath,

but I mean, he could have been psyching himself out and just kind of going, yeah. Do like more shallow breath. And it could have been that the door sensor wasn't working well and the animals were in a bad mood. So then after that whole sort of sequence of scenes, we get, um, the back and forth at the restaurant trying to decide on names. Yes. And the whole sort of repetitive back and forth they have, or Homer suggests something and Barney goes on.

great.

Why is it a bag you want

to go to the feedback I got that does not sound appetizers, picturing like burgers and fries in a bag pressed against someone's face.

It's just toss them in there and you just eat them out of a bag and

barbecue sauce in

there. And then just kinda let it all soak in like a paper bag with like grease marks on it. And it's about then that, um, its delivery truck pulls up with the, uh, industrial size fryer

thinks huge. And

he says, you can't flash fry, a Buffalo in 40 seconds and horses

want to do it.

Oh my God. There's so many. Perfect lines from this episode. Um, oh, and to go with tradition when the itchy and scratchy portion came on, I did not allow my seven year old to watch when we were kids. We were not allowed to watch these parts, but this one is actually pretty mild. I couldn't remember it super well, but it's just, it's the one with the space needle. It's not like a ton of blood. It's just sort of. Him getting impaled in the eye with a space needle. That's the thing

is harder though, is as they are relative to the rest of the show, they're very bloody and everything, but they're always like comical over the

top. Yeah. Yeah. And that's sort of the joke is that it is so over the top, but you know, if you've got a seven year old, that's not really

the best thing, I'll let them watch.

And Bert doesn't laugh at the itchy and scratchy episode. So Lisa sets up a test,

which she has a little bit of an evil side for these.

I was thinking about that just how quickly she comes up with it. And she's kind of cold towards Homer during this

whole thing in physical danger.

I mean, it's not serious danger, but still she just it's a little cold. Yeah. And, um, and Bart doesn't laugh sill. So he starting to wonder if he really has lost his soul.

And then we have the part where Marge is worried about what's going on. She can tell something's going on. And she's like a mother knows and she's rubbing his back. She's like, Hmm, it's not fear of nuclear war. It's not swim. Test anxiety. So

specific,

but she cares and it's like, she's got a checklist in her head of what could be bothering him, swim test anxiety. Yeah.

It's, it's up there for a lot of kids and, you know, cool. That is very sweet though. All right. And so part goes and visits the van Houghton's and I, this happened several times through the episode where they specifically remember if that they have a piece of paper when nobody would

remember that. Yeah. But I wonder too, if I was thinking, I thought about that myself, but it might be because Milhous is so obsessed about the paper. Like you wouldn't notice if someone was carrying a piece of paper, but you'd notice if someone was. Clutching it and, you know, had it with the army men they were playing with that would stand up.

That's odd. That is true. And that kind of goes with your theory too, that he is kind of showing a more diabolical side. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I didn't think of that. So middle. Understands the operations of supply and demand.

Yes, very much so,

because he says, was it $50, 50 bucks? And the way

he says it too, he's just talking. He's like, oh, you want your soul 50 bucks?

He's getting coffee. Oh man. So, and then Bart, Bart can't afford that back. So he's got to think of something else. So then we've got this commercial for uncle Mo's family feedback, which is just, this is just this whole sequence is classic.

So I'm just like mentally preparing for it.

So you've got all the people sit at the restaurant. You've got most announcement of it, the, all the crap on the wall, all

the talks with the fancy voice

and something I didn't notice until I put, uh, a GIF of this on our Twitter page. Simpson sibs at Twitter, um, is that there's a candle stick and the candle actually melts when they fry it. Oh, cause he's dips it in. And then when it comes out, cause when I was watching it, because I saw a loop so many times on the post, on our Twitter page at Simpson sips and move

or

some mode and. And I kept noticing I was like, something's missing in the second portion. And it's because of course the wax would melt when they'd ride, when they, when they try it. So that was, oh, it was kind of cool that the animators caught that. Um, but then of course they, they fry literally everything, including the bottle and the utensil. With the little thumbs up and, um, and then most says, uh, no, no seniors. Cause they aren't covered by the insurance

because I think he says no old people, old people. That's what he says, family, no old people. They're not covered by her insurance.

And then the. The end of the commercial. I actually counted them. They say good seven times. It's good. Good, good, good, good, good, good. Oh dear God. And he's he's face twitches too. Like he can't maintain. Creepy level,

you know, he's going budget, everything like the budget insurance because of the old people, the budget commercial crew.

Oh my gosh. So then we have the dream sequence and this gets super artsy

fartsy. Cause they tend to the

color. I love it. Well, they, and it's weird cause they put like the sky is green and the, I can't remember what the color of the water is. It's it's interesting. And they have this weird music. Like a flute playing and it's like, kind of starts out fun, but then it gets a little, you know, off and ah, I just love all the atmosphere in the sand. It's almost, I ate almost, it's almost like a Disney movie or something. The way it's formulated.

Martin's so cheerful. He always says, but yeah.

Yeah. And then Nelson's being himself and Millhouse has so, so basically everyone has a double, which is their soul and Millhouse has to, because he's got. Pam and Barts, and everyone's going onto boats and there they're going in this lake and you can't really tell where they're going at first. And Bart's left sort of going in circles because he only has one person his boat. So that's, the everyone kind of goes off on their boats and they're all going towards this weird, like palace thing.

explained Emerald city kind of thing.

Yeah. It was very kind of wizard of Oz vibe. And I, they, I love that they never thoroughly explain it. It's just sort of that feeling of being left behind and also not going to someplace that's important. It could be about not going to heaven. Well, that's how

dreams are too. Sometimes you wake up and you think I have no idea what that meant or why I thought that, but it's your brain working through things that you're worried about.

Yeah, definitely. And that, that. You know, found all the symbolism in his subconscious, that it was able to develop its own very multilayered and I love it. Um, and then we have the twins, um, Sherry and Terry, and now they'll have a standard scream and it's very, it kind of reminds me of the Treehouse of horror. When, when Homer's the, uh, the Jack in the box when he's like turning them into things and then he ends up hugging him at the end and Bart wakes up and just screams.

Sequence changes. Yeah. Especially it's such different environments and

tones. Yeah. So pretty much immediately after they go to, um, uncle Mose and it's the whole family and, and both Homer and Marge are adorable at the beginning of this, where Margie's just surprised that everything on the line. I got an alligator with silo and Homer going nuts. Mo the guy from the, he knows

my name.

Like he just forgot absolutely everything that he knew about Mo and the entire process that he was involved in to make this restaurant. And so much goes on in this scene, um, at the million dollar birthday for her here I am.

Well,

thank you. Ma'am this will be a treat. Um, please take the basket from my head. He's extremely hot. So he starts out. Okay. He's doing all right. He did the, he did the million dollar birthday, Fridays, Fridays. He's greeting the customers. He still stayed. And, um, well, first we have Marge ordering the food and we get the best part of the chicken, the neck, and we add our blend of secret hobo spices.

It's one of those things that describing it that way it's either awful or really good. Oh,

Are those spikes. So you're eating a chicken neck with, I don't know. And then, um, then we have, I think it's, um, I think it's, Ralph does a spray gun towards him and it says all the laughter of children cuts through me like a dentist

as he opens a family restaurant. Yes.

Yeah, it's just the worst decision ever. Um, and then we have the, the tying of the AMB plot together, as Lisa says, grace and acknowledges everyone's soul except Bart's. And I, I kind of have a feeling that she's doing. To set him off to get him on his journey to get us all back. Yeah.

Because she wants the best for him. And she later ends up doing good for him, but she just cuts into them plus mom's soul. So.

And I know there's a look in her face. It's almost like she's the parent in the situation waiting for him to learn his own lesson. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so of course, Bart runs off to get his soul back and then. I've said this before. My favorite Simpsons character is Homer's brain because he says, um, wait bar, you didn't finish your spaghetti and mobiles,

which

is just the best name ever. Then it cuts to his head and he says, no, wait, this can all be yours. And then he already like, as the food in his mouth

and his run

it's and he has no clue what's going on. He doesn't know anything about what's going on with Bart. He just knows that he just ran out of the restaurant for no reason by himself, by himself at night. And he's like, Eight years old. So, so that happens. I

mean, if you and I were at a restaurant with the whole family and I ran out unexpectedly, you would be worried and he probably helped me down.

Oh man. It's great. So Bart tries to find Millhouse, but he is at his grandmother's and we have someone else we have does that guy have a name? The guy that always talks like this. The mustache and he's usually selling something or

do something different. Yeah. He's like the mechanic

sometimes. Yeah. There's bringing fruit potato books. And did he have a piece of paper with them? Oh yeah. You don't forget it. Things like that. Oh God. Um, so next, next week, cut back to the restaurant. There's a lot of cutting back. There's like only two groups that we're cutting back on.

I think that's why I'm having trouble because the two plots kind of intertwined with each other and they cut back and forth. And yeah, I took these notes a few weeks ago, so it's oh, shoot. You

did this when, when we were going to do it the other time. Oh shoot. Sorry,

but it's funny. And even because I love this episode too, and we've seen them so many times, but it's easy to forget, like the

flow of it. Yeah. Like the exact order of the scenes. Yeah, I get ya. So we have, we go back to Mo and this is when he's sort of slowly blow. Like he's slowly losing his composure. Um, we have more million dollar birthday fries, but it's for Sherry and Terry. And so he has to do both and then we have, um, The little, well, oh wait, then we have, he's not smiling for the bill. So snake runs off on the belt because he says that you're guaranteed. If he doesn't smile by a bot.

and pour little. She's like wearing a dress.

It's got a little curls.

Oh man. Her Sodi

her. So he makes her keep her and oh. And then we get Flanders and it's so it's Todd, isn't it errata. I can't remember which one's, which, which

one's a little one. I think Todd's a

younger one. Okay. Because Todd's always the one accidentally learning curse words and not appropriate words. Cause he also did the damn vegetables, but he goes, oh my freaking, oh my goodness. It's perfect.

I expect that kind of language at a Denny's, but

oh my goodness. It was just funny because just last night we were talking about how much we love Danny, but this was also the nineties different times. And then we get the, the whole gag with the bike and the street cleaner. Oh,

this is amazing. We were talking about this earlier, too.

Yeah. Um, which, how do you know what YouTube, where that was? The analyze that scene.

It's been about a year since I've seen it.

Me too, but they analyze the scene and it's it's about how old Simpsons gags were set up, how it always went one step further than you thought it would. So you've got the street cleaner and then the fake out where the bike's working and then it doesn't. And then the guy evil has an evil laugh. And you think it's over?

Yeah, because so the street cleaner runs over the bike. And then the joke is that the bike comes up perfectly. So that in itself would have been an average TV show joke, but then they take it to the bus, the bike rusting and falling apart. Oh, okay. That's the final step. Okay. That, that completes the joke, what we expected. And then you get the guy in the street, cleaner, laughing as he goes away and you're like, okay. Yeah, he's evil. He did it on purpose. That's the end of the joke.

because it just keeps going and

they do such a good job of just missing through expectations on that for something that's not critical

to the story. And every single step of that joke is something unexpected happening. Nothing's predictable in those couple seconds. Yeah. Uh, it's fantastic. So Bart finds Ralph in the police car by himself because chief him is, is talking to them. To the crazy guy. And, um, we really see the desperation in Bart's face here. Like they kind of give him lines under his eyes and then of course he hits his once. Chief Wagan catches him.

Oh, he's willing to take someone else's sold to.

Yeah. Yeah. You can see that he's getting to the same point that they'll house was that,

which makes me wonder, did house do something to lose his soul? All the pieces are coming together.

We need

answers.

We won't find them. So that, okay. And then we get another cut back to the beat plot. So now Moe's completely given up on the family feed bag and he sort of having like a mope session. He just needs to kind of. Sit and mope for a bit. You know, if you, if you see your friend being kind of sad, you let the mope, or, you know, you help them vent through it. But Homer is just saying like all the wrong things.

Yes.

Because that's Homer because that's Homer and he's just completely oblivious to it just saying, um, what, wasn't that the problem in the first place that we were the only people that visited your bar and you were running out of business? No. Mo oh, you're sad about all the money you wasted on the restaurant. How much was that like $50,000? Hey, Mo Mo and then he just, he just yelled. Oh, poor Mo

at least homework keeps him in

business. Yes. And Barney, when he's not, you know, attacking the midnight beer drop-off, which was the different episode that I watched by myself. That's a good one. Um, so, okay then we have the sequence with my house as family. Yes.

Oh, just that they're all crammed in that tiny apartment. It's so sad

because it's bringing food, potato books and, um, we got each of them just sort of getting mad at Barton is in his own way. And so Bart out. No house for his soul back. And his dad goes, give him back his soul. I've got work tomorrow. And then, um, and then of course he sold, he sold the soul to someone else and bought

Alf bugs. Yes. He's back in punk for, well, we also have. The joke with no houses, grandma who's at the door. This late, you dial nine one. I say, go down one again. I just think it's funny. It's a subtle thing, but just that if that was done now, it would be dial nine 11, and then we'd hit

call. Think about it.

Nothing major, but

yeah. Yeah. Oh man, it also kind of reminded me of a grandpa Simpson when he tells Bart tug on the rope 63 times, if you've run out of air in 64 times, if you found the treasure, I know this is a better way to do this guys. So Bart is desperate and what we have. So Millhouse. He didn't just sell it to anyone in particular. He sold it to the comic book guy. So bark gets super desperate and, um, goes and waits in front of the Android Sufjan. Yes. And he tells me.

It's probably nothing new for them.

Yeah, probably not. So he goes home and he cries and he prays. It's super honest. This seem like he's not, he's not trying to and negotiate that, sir. He's desperate.

Well, the Senate, his voice, when he says that someone has a soul, I don't know what they're doing to it. He's he is worried

that it, it almost kind of hurts. And finally it turns out that Lisa bought it and she kind of tosses it in front of him. And it's very

sweet. Then the camera pans out, and she's got that stance where she's holding it

above. She's kind of on her tip toe. It's very sweet. Very sweet. And she says that, um, you know, I can't remember who she said says this specifically, but there's a theory that you aren't born with a soul, but you have to work towards it. And that he went through an ordeal the night before, and that sort of earned. His soul back. And he actually eats the piece of paper

taken, literally that the paper is the manifestation of his soul. So he's got to get it back in him, which is a

very part way of thinking that

it ties back to earlier Millhouse saying that when you sneeze, it's your soul trying to escape and bless you is cramming it back.

Like very, very literal take on this by the kids. And then we go back to the dream sequence and they're all heading on their boats. And Bart has his own soulmate, his own soul, really, uh, helping them on the boat and they make it to. To the palace.

Yeah. Knocking people over on the

way. Yup. Very in style. And here's a really good sort of piano note in the background. It's a little, it's not heart-wrenching but it pokes at the heartstrings a little bit. Yeah. And that is the episode. That is my favorite

episode is a good episode. I always liked this one.

Yeah. And I was kind of, I. It's weird because I found this to be my favorite episode for a while, but I wasn't always sure why. Hi, this is sorry. I couldn't quite get the words out right in the original recording. Sorry about the abruptness as I'm recording and editing this in, after the. So I'm going to get in a little bit of personal territory here.

Simpsons. And I feel like it leaves you walking away, feeling happy in a way that somewhat, not just the Simpsons, but a lot of shows that are. I don't quite do as much anymore.

It's just sort of a all wrapped together and you feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. And that's my favorite Simpsons episode format birth day. And you'll get. Birthday one at the beginning of

next season. Yes.

Yes. Speaking of which we have announced on our Twitter Simpson sibs that, um, we are going to be taking the months of June and July off. So we will have this episode one more episode and then a couple months off and then we will return in August. So yeah. All right. So this is our third to last episode of the season. We are taking June and July off boats. So got two more for you guys. Our next episode will be on mother's Simpson, which is season seven, episode eight.

bye everybody.