Fat Man and Little Boy

Season 16, Episode 5, Aired
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Episode Summary

Bart loses his last baby tooth in a spitball fight. Called the money tooth, Bart is suffering from what he calls a midlife crisis when the tooth fairy has given a gift in his name to the United Way, what his mother calls a "grown-up gift." Bart gives up on his childhood and Lisa suggests that he expresses his feelings in some way and Bart chooses to put them in the form of slogans on a T-shirt. When Goose Gladwell, a gag-gift entrepreneur, sees the slogans he forms a partnership with Bart that begins to make Bart a lot of money. Homer is suspended from work without pay and then decides to quit outright and live off of his son's earnings. Of course he loses his place in the family as breadwinner and starts to lose his self respect. A documentary by Declan Desmond on lions inspires Homer to start focusing on his relationship with Lisa. He decides to help her with her science project about nuclear power, which includes a scale model of the first nuclear power plant. Homer improves on her model by making it functional, something easily done after finding the instructions on the Internet. He sneaks into the power plant and get some plutonium. Meanwhile, Goose Gladwell has sold the rights to Bart's T-Shirts to Disney and Bart won't get a dime from it. To get back into his role as the alpha male of the family, Homer makes use of the working nuclear reactor to threaten Gladwell into giving his son what he deserves and few novelty items for himself. As to whether the reactor actually works or not, Homer decides to leave that up to the seagulls at the city dump to figure it out.moreless
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Cast & Crew

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  • Julie Kavner

    Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, and Selma Bouvier

  •

    Harry Shearer

    Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Waylon Smithers, Kent Brockman, and others

  •

    Dan Castellaneta

    Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, and others

Fan Episode Reviews (3)

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  • The Simpsons season 16 does it again... Let's hope that the consistenacy of this season keeps up!!

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By Iverson82094, Dec 05, 2007 Report Abuse
    Bart loses his last baby tooth, causing him to go into a midlife crisis when the tooth fairy gives what Marge calls a "grown-up gift." Bart gives up on his childhood but after a suggestion by Lisa, Bart chooses to put his feelings on T-shirts as slogans. When Goose Gladwell sees the slogans he forms a partnership with Bart that begins to make Bart a lot of money. Homer decides to quit work and live off of his son's earnings. This causes Homer to lose his self respect. A documentary by Declan Desmond inspires Homer to start focusing on his relationship with Lisa. He decides to help her with her science project, improving a nuclear model by making it functional. He sneaks into the power plant and get some plutonium. Meanwhile, Goose Gladwell sells the rights to Bart's T-Shirts and Bart won't get a dime from it. Homer threatens Gladwell into giving his son what he deserves.moreless

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  • Bart loses a piece of his childhood then sells out

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By jimbo_001, Jan 31, 2006 Report Abuse
    This episode is great especially the different slogans Bart comes up with though getting rid of all of his toys incluing his prized skateboard was a bit strange. My favourite line is one of Homer's quotes where he says "Yeah, nothing makes a parent happier than when an eccentric old man takes an interest in their ten year old son" - a classic homerism. This is one of my favourite episodes in season 16 and I love that Homer actually using nuclear material in Lisa's project and is forced to throw it out, so of course he threatens the willy wonka-like character with it. A great episode where Bart becomes the financial provider for the family.moreless

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  • Magnificent.

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By Star_Blaster, Sep 25, 2005 Report Abuse
    A perfect episode with loads and loads of humor. Believe me, you'll laugh all the way through. I think this is one of the funniest ever, and it deserves 9.5/10. I loved it when Bart was going through his toys and they're all allusions of other toys. And when Clancy Wiggum says he wants XXXXXXXL size for one of Bart's shirts. That was halirious! It has a good plot too. How Bart sells his funy shirts to make money, and a goofball man likes them so much he decides to sell them in most of the states in the USA. Then he obtains so much money he gets to rule over Homer, so Homer decides to help Lisa with her project by stealing a nuclear power bomb. (Of course, Marge makes him get rid of it) And when Homer discovers the man who wanted to sells Bart's shirts all over America was just pulling a scam, Homer threatens him with the nuclear power bomb and make the uy give loads of things free! It ends as Bart and Homer wak off, taing the dangerous nuclear power bomb to the dump.

    What an exciting episode it was. Astounding and stunning.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • Music from this episode "Miss Suzie Had a Tugboat" by Davey Jones (The song Lisa and Janey sing before Bart's spitball attack.) "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas (When Bart gives his toys a Viking funeral.) "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred (As Bart models his T-shirts) "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited (As Krusty the Clown announces his line of "Krusty & Friends Fun Wear" T-shirts.) The theme to The Pink Panther (In the sequence where Homer steals plutonium for Lisa's mock-up of a nuclear reactor, as he helps her try to one-up Martin.) Edit

  • Notes

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    • When Lisa and Janie are clapping hands and singing the song and Homer keeps getting worried they are going to swear was an idea that they were going to use in Season 3, in the episode "When Flanders Failed". They reveal this when you listen to the commentary on the DVD. Edit
    • Matt Groening registered the domain nuclear-secrets.com before this episode aired, but did not create a website. Edit
    • Blackboard Joke: None. Couch Gag: After the family takes their usual places on the couch, the couch rises into the air and is actually part of the tendril of an anglerfish that you'll find in the deep depths in the ocean. The anglerfish empties the couch of the family and swallows them whole. Edit

  • Quotes

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    • Marge: (Looking in a kitchen drawer) Potato masher jammed in small spoon slot? What kind of madman would do that? Edit
    • Homer: Get back in the garage, old man! Grampa: But there's spiders in the boxes! Homer: Stay out of my boxes! Edit
    • Homer: Honey, all's you need is a little help from your dad. Remember, I did used to work at a science factory. Lisa: Well, we're supposed to do this without parental help. Homer: Sweetie, that's orphan talk! Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Martin: Let's go gather our rosebuds while we may. Martin says this to his robot. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" is a line from the poem "To Virgins to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick. The first stanza, the one with the line Martin uses, goes like this: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today, To-morrow will be dying. This poem is read by John Keating in the film 1989 Dead Poets Society. Edit
    • The Sea Captain: Dawn goes down to day, nothing gold can stay. The Sea Captain quotes Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leafs a flower, But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. This poem was also featured in the movie The Outsiders. Edit
    • Some popular phrases that, through minor variation, become Bart's T-shirt slogans:
      • Bored in the USA – Inspired by Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."
      • Impeach everybody – In real life, people wore these T-shirts, encouraging lawmakers to "Impeach Nixon" and "Impeach Clinton."
      • Weapon of ass destruction – A non-schoolable re-write for the non-schoolable "Weapon of mass descruction."
      • Life ends at ten – The opposite of "Life begins at 80."
      • Pobody's sherfect, nithead – You figure out the last word (especially when you rearrange the appropriate letters), but "Pobody's Nerfect" was a popular T-shirt slogan in the late 1970s and 1980s.
      • Get bent – One of Bart's popular catchphrases early in the series.
      • Don't blame me, I voted for Scooby-Doo – Not sure how popular the cowardly mongrel is on Election Day, but it's another reference to a famous Hanna-Barbera canine detective.
      • If you can read this, the backpack fell off – "If you can read this ..." was another series of popular T-shirt slogans in the late 1970s and 1980s.
      • I'm not getting older, I'm getting bitter – Play on the phrase "I'm not getting older, I'm getting better."
      • Wish you were beer – a la "Wish you were here."
      • America's least wanted – a play on the Fox TV series, "America's Most Wanted."
      • Top of the dude chain – aka "Top of the food chain."
      • Stop world hunger, eat my shorts! – The "eat my shorts" is another Bart endorsed phrase. Edit

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