Bart The Genius

SEASON-1 (Episode-2)- Original Air Date: 14 January 1990

The Simpson family was playing SCRABBLE in their living room in order to improve Bart Simpson’s vocabulary since he was required to attend an aptitude test at school, the next day. Bart imagined a word called “Kwyjibo,” and as soon as he uttered it, the game neared an end as everyone else realized that Bart had been cheating. Bart also tried to defend himself by defining the meaning of the word as an enormous North American chimpanzee without any chin. Homer Simpson became infuriated due to his son’s behavior, and immediately chased him away.
Next day, a boy named Martin Prince who was considered to be a genius at school, complained against Bart for writing down negative things, by spray painting on the school walls, about Mr. Skinner, who happened to be the school principal. So the principal told Bart to meet him when school ended. During the aptitude test, the lecturer, Mrs. Krabappel was about to distribute the papers to every students who sat for that particular test. Right at that time, Martin managed to raise his hand and reminded the teacher about the fact that Bart was supposed to attend the test by remaining face to face with the window, so that he had no way of copying from other friends. As instructed, Bart couldn’t help but began the test by facing the window while muttering to himself. While writing, he tried to figure out a way to solve a lengthy word problem with no avail. As a result, he began to think harder about the solution which led him to day dream. By the time Bart’s realization dawned, he found Martin handing over his paper to the teacher as he was done with his examination. Martin was sent out of the classroom along with a book and was told to read it for the rest of the time period. While Bart was still trying to concentrate on his test, he found a complacent Martin showing his tongue to him by standing outside the window. Bart made a face at Martin so as to take revenge. The lecturer noticed the case and immediately looked out the window in order to find out what on earth had Bart been trying to perceive. As she tried to do so, Bart, without even wasting any second, took away Martin’s paper which was placed on top of the desk. It was quite easy for him to tackle the situation as he was now sitting on the front bench and the lecturer was facing her back to him. Bart somehow managed to change his name with Martin and after scribbling down a few more words on his own paper, he wrote down Martin’s name on that paper. After he was completely contented with his work, he kept the papers back to the lecturer’s desk.
After school, a meeting had been called in order to discuss about Bart’s conduct at school and thus, his parents, MR. Homer Simpson as well as Mrs. Marge Simpson were asked to come over. The meeting took place in Mr. Skinner’s office. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were informed by Principal Skinner about the spray painting incident in which Bart had been involved during the morning time. Mr. Skinner also ensured that Homer and Marge Simpson got acquainted with Bart’s previous records and just when he was about to talk through something about the expulsion lines, his secretary suddenly appeared inside the office. When asked about what the matter had been, Mr. Skinner was told that the school mental health professional named Dr. J. Loren Pryor was interested in talking to Mr. Skinner. Everyone was taken by surprise when Dr. Pryor joined the meeting and declared that Bart could be considered as an “extraordinary child” and he gave evidence by mentioning the fact that Bart had an IQ of 216 which had been deduced by seeing his aptitude test earlier. The psychiatrist concluded that Bart was a genius, and the main reason for him doing all the mischief at school was because school work was just like pieces of cake for him. Mr. Skinner was not so contented with the statement and he was about to suggest that Bart should have repeated the test but when Dr. Pryor gave the idea about sending Bart to the same school as other “extraordinary children” went, Mr. Skinner alas became convinced and did not argue about anything. Bart became rather interested when he heard that the school didn’t provide with much rules except for the fact that the students were given the choices of making their own. Bart, along with Mr. and Mrs. Simpson left the office in bewilderment after Dr. Pryor gave some handouts to Bart, which he would have needed at the school he was about to join!
Next morning, during breakfast, Homer and Marge remained more closely attached with Bart as they realized that their son had been no less than a genius. Homer even told Lisa, Bart's sister to eat the exact meals as Bart took for his breakfast so that she could become like her brother as well. Lisa, being the smarter kid could not have been fooled like her parents, by the incidents that had occurred around the house as she was overconfident about her brother being nothing, but an idiot!
When they were done with the breakfast, Homer and Bart headed towards the new school. As they walked through the compound, they found out Bart’s class and Homer observed that all the children inside the classroom were attired along with neck ties. He therefore handed over his own tie to Bart and gave him an encouraging speech about getting to attend the first day of school, before pushing him forward through the door of the class. The teacher, Mrs. Melon got Bart acquainted with herself as well as the other students and showed him round the class. She also informed Bart about the independent learning system and the only rule applicable inside the classroom was to create their own. “Free will and the irony it creates” was chosen to be the topic for debating among the students. As the other students kept on giving their opinions either for or against the topic, Bart found it rather difficult to cope up with the discussion. During lunch, Bart's classmates got to realize that he wasn’t all that smart as everyone thought he would be, due to the fact that he was ready to accept anything and everything said or done by his friends. Eventually, a humiliated Bart left the lunch table, leaving his other friends with their mocking laughter at him.
After class, when Bart reached home, he was resting in his bedroom when homer entered his room in order to talk about his son’s experience on the first day of his new school. Homer stated that they would be going out for chocolate milkshakes. The moment Bart agreed to his dad’s statement his mom appeared and said that she had arranged tickets so that they could attend opera and that would help cultivate Bart’s mind. Once in opera, Bart and Homer were bored to death and therefore they were trying to fool around although they were continuously being stopped by Marge.
Everyday was getting worse. Next day when Bart went to school he realized what a stupid he really was when he wasn’t being able to figure out a calculus problem from the blackboard. While walking back home, his old school came into view and he could perceive his old friends playing with marbles. As he made an eye contact with them, in an attempt to talk to them, they behaved in such a way that they were seeing an alien and told Bart to leave them alone. Bart was quite depressed about everything that had not been working out right lately and as he was having his dinner, his mom declared that they should not get delayed for the movie festival that she had arranged the tickets for as she thought this was a good method to cultivate her son’s mind. At the thought of attending another movie festival, Bart was hesitant and luckily, Homer gave the decision that it wasn’t really necessary for them to attend the movie festival. Bart became happy and he wanted to confess the truth to his dad and he wanted to admit that he was no genius but all these had been happening due to the fact that he had cheated in his IQ test. At that very moment, Homer suggested that Bart and he should go outside and play. After the game was over, Bart realized that being a father of a genius meant a lot to his dad, and pushed away the thought of confessing the truth to him. He was afraid to see his parents upset and he didn’t even know how to get out of the mess that he had created; so he just thought of sticking to the lie that everyone was happy with!
Next day at school, Bart managed to bring about an explosion during chemistry experiment which led to the spreading out of green gooey stuff everywhere including his body. Later, Bart could be seen in Dr Pryor’s office and the psychiatrist asked him the reasons for being a failure at school. Dr Pryor thought he already knew the answer and that was, the things provided at the school were not up to the standard for Bart and that had been creating all the mess. Bart gave an excuse by suggesting that he wished he could go back to his old school because he wanted to study about normal children life in their ordinary school by acting like an undercover agent. So Dr Pryor found it innovative and supported Bart’s decision and told him to write down an application, referring to Mr. Skinner and in the mean time, Dr Pryor would go and talk to the principal in person. While struggling to write the application, Bart could no longer bear all the terrible problems that he had been undergoing and therefore confessed the truth instead of the application. When Dr Pryor returned to his office, he saw the explanation, written by Bart and he realized at once that Bart had never been a brilliant student.
Later, when Bart came home from school, he greeted his parents in that same green stains, left on his body. Homer thought of giving Bart a wash, in order to get rid of the stains. Once dad and son were together, Bart admitted the truth to his dad that he was never a genius and that he had cheated in his test. He also added that he loved getting all the extra bit of attentions from his parents and this situation had brought them closer than ever! But Homer’s way of thinking was different and he couldn’t be as optimistic as Bart had sounded to be. He started chasing Bart like he used to do in the past. Bart tried to hide inside his bedroom and locked the door from inside while his dad kept on knocking away. Everything gradually came back to normal in the Simpson house.