Lisa the Beauty Queen
| "Lisa the Beauty Queen" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:9f02.gif | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 |
| Directed by | Mark Kirkland |
| Written by | Jeff Martin |
| Original air dates | October 15, 1992 |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not prescribe medication" |
| Couch gag | Maggie appears on the couch first. Homer, Marge, and Bart run by, but end up on the empty white space of the film frame. They scramble back and Lisa comes in at the last minute.[1] |
| Commentary | Matt Groening Al Jean Jeff Martin Mark Kirkland |
"Lisa the Beauty Queen" is the forth episode of The Simpsons' fourth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 15, 1992. In the episode, Lisa enters a beauty pageant and becomes Little Miss Springfield after the original winner is injured. As Little Miss Springfield, Lisa unwillingly becomes Laramie Cigarettes's latest spokesperson. She fights back and the honor get taken away from due to a technicality.
Jeff Martin wrote the episode, and Mark Kirkland served as director. Martin also wrote the songs and music for the episode. Bob Hope made a guest appearance
Plot
Springfield Elementary School is having a school fair. Lisa is having a caricature of herself drawn at a carnival booth. She is horrified at the crude drawing of herself and the surrounding crowd's reaction. Elsewhere, Homer has entered the raffle at the fair, with the grand prize being a ride in the Duff Blimp. Homer wins the grand prize. Back at home, Lisa is in tears over her belief that she is not attractive. Homer notices the problem, but he is unable to fix it by consoling her. He observes a TV advertisement saying that Laramie Cigarettes is sponsoring this year's "Little Miss Springfield" pageant, and decides to enter her. The entry fee for the pageant is $250, and Homer is currently broke. Choosing his daughter's happiness over his own, he decides to sell the Duff Blimp ticket to Barney. Homer excitedly tells Lisa, who refuses to do it at first. However, when Marge tells Lisa that Homer paid the entry fee by selling his ride on the Duff Blimp, Lisa, realizing how much of a sacrifice her father made, decides to enter the pageant.
At the pageant sign-ups, Lisa encounters a formidable competitor in the form of Amber Dempsey, a blond girl who has had “eyelash implants” from Paraguay to make her look cuter. After some makeovers at the beauty parlor, training from her brother, and encouragement from her family, the day of the pageant arrives. At the introductions, Lisa emphasizes her goals of making Springfield a better place, while Amber wins the adoration of the crowd merely by flashing her enormous eyelashes. Lisa's talent segment consists of a jazzed-up rendition of "America the Beautiful" and "Proud Mary". After Krusty's questions with the little girls, the runner-up is announced as Lisa, and the winner is Amber. However, at her first official appearance, a thunderstorm passes by and a lightning bolt strikes Amber's metal scepter. She is hospitalized for her injuries, and Lisa takes her place as the acting Little Miss Springfield.
As Little Miss Springfield, Lisa unwillingly becomes Laramie Cigarettes's latest spokesperson in order to lure a younger demographic into smoking. She begins to fight back by protesting against the dangers of cigarettes at her appearances, and also vows to target the corruption of Mayor Quimby. Quimby and the Laramie officials meet to look for a way to dethrone Lisa as Little Miss Springfield. They find it through a technicality on her entry form; when Homer saw an area marked "Do not write in this space" on the paper, he wrote under it, "OK". Amber is restored to her place as Little Miss Springfield. At home, Homer is upset that he cost Lisa her title, but Lisa reminds him that he originally entered her in the contest to help her self-esteem, which it has, and she thanks him. Homer requests that she remember it "the next time I wreck your life", to which Lisa gladly agrees.
Production
At the beginning of season four almost every writer had left to do other things or to go on vacation, so Al Jean and Mike Reiss was just brainstorming for plot ideas alone. They first came up with "Homer the Heretic" and after that they got the idea that Lisa should enter a beauty pageant. They assigned Jeff Martin to write the episode, because they then thought that he would fill it with musical numbers, like he did on previous episodes.[2] He did that and all the songs and music is written by Jeff Martin.[3] He also based the episode on some of his own experiences. The scene in which Lisa is having a caricature of herself drawn is based on writer Jeff Martin's on experiences[3]
This episode featured Bob Hope as a guest star. Jeff Martin and Conan O'Brian went over to his house and recorded his part in it. At that point he could almost not hear or see them at 92 years old, but he is drawn more youthful.[3]
Cultural references
The episode holds several references. In films the episode takes detail-for-detail a scene from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now from 1979, where Lisa and Bob Hope escapes the Fort Springfield stage.[1] It also makes two references to the Star Wars trilogy. The first is at the carnival where the caricature artist displays a caricature of Darth Vader. Later in a montage Lisa is seen with a double-bun hairdo like Princess Leia.[4] Musically, Homer mournfully sings a song, "Blimpy Boy", to the tune of The Seekers' "Georgy Girl" from 1966.[1] Historically, there is a parody of the Hindenburg disaster, when the Duff Blimp crashes into the radio tower, to which Kent Brockman quotes "Oh, the humanity!".[1] Additionally, when Lisa is being sworn in as Little Miss Springfield on her front lawn, Marge is to her left dressed in a pink suit-dress and has taken a pose similar to that of Jacqueline Kennedy in the famous photo of Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One after John F. Kennedy's assassination.[2] The Springfield Waxworks' Chamber of Horrors contains Mr. T, Ronald Reagan and Dr. Ruth.[1] Also, keeping with the theme of smoking, Menthol Moose, Laramie's mascot for selling cigarettes to children is an obvious parody of Joe Camel.[2]
Reception
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: "Another top-notch episode" and adds that "Krusty gets some of his best lines in a few brief appearances."[1]
The Church of England released the book Mixing it up with The Simpsons, which is being used to encourage children to reflect on the big issues in life. "Lisa the Beauty Queen" is used in that book to explore issues of self-image.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "A Streetcar Named Marge". BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c ">Jean, Al (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Beaúty Queen" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ a b c ">Martin, Jeff (2004). The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Beaúty Queen" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
{{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Scott Chernoff (2007-07-24). "I Bent My Wookiee! Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection". Star Wars.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Aye Carumba! The Simpsons help liven up Christian teaching". July 25, 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
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External links
