Smart and Smarter

Season 15, Episode 13, Aired
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Episode Summary

Apu and Manjula are signing up two of the octuplets for Miss Wickerbottom's Pre-Nursery School and after a verbal exchange with Dr. Hibbert, Homer decides they should do the same for Maggie. Because she can't talk, she doesn't pass the initial screening. Afterwards Lisa discovers that even though Maggie can't talk she does show signs of brilliance. Another screening at the pre-pre school shows of her talents and reveals that she has a higher IQ than Lisa. Maggie's new brilliance leaves Lisa searching for a new identity, since she no longer has her status as "the smart one." Lisa tries stand-up comedy, becoming a goth 'Ravencrone Neversmiles,' cheerleader, rapper, soccer player, cowgirl; none of which workout for her. After she is discovered trying to sabotage her sister's education Lisa leaves home with 2 to her name. She decides to stay at the Natural History Museum, where her family is sure to never find her; however Springfield's "finest" do discover her location and they bring the family to help them find her. An accident gets Marge, Bart and Homer trapped in an exhibit and they look to Maggie to get them out, but Maggie's secret to her brilliance is nowhere to be found.moreless
8.1
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Cast & Crew

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  • Julie Kavner

    Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, and Selma Bouvier

    9.1

  • Harry Shearer

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

    9.5

  • Dan Castellaneta

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

    9.7

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

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  • Lisa becomes jealous when everyone thinks Maggie is smarter than her.

    8.5
    "Great"
    By Hornets3, Aug 30, 2009 Report Abuse
    The family attempts to enrol Maggie into a pre-nursery school but is rejected by the rude admissions clerk as she cannot yet talk. Lisa recognises her talent so they bring her back to the school for an IQ test. This time the admissions clerk labels her a genius, with an IQ of 167. With Maggie the smartest in the family, Lisa is jealous and tries to make herself a different person but her new identities fail. When she finds she is a little too bitter, she runs away from home and finds refuge in the Natural History Museum. The police track her down and bring the family there to find her. The family, minus Maggie, gets caught in a giant working model of the digestive system. With Maggie at the controls, she almost drowns her entire family until Lisa apologises and helps her push the right button. Ths school informs the family that all along Maggie was just relaying answers that Lisa subconsciously gave her, and not a genius after all. This was another well-executed plot from season 15. Overall I loved this episode. Maybe not the best of the season, but it was still pretty well put together. I also thought Simon Cowell fit in well as a guest star to the episode. Give it a watch.moreless

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  • Maggie is smarter than Lisa... Has the impossible happened, Lisa is not the smartest Simpson anymore????? Maybe or maybe not this episode had a great trick ending and had hilarious humor...moreless

    9.3
    "Superb"
    By Iverson82094, Nov 26, 2007 Report Abuse
    The family attempts to enrol Maggie into a pre-nursery school but is rejected by the rude admissions clerk as she cannot yet talk. Lisa recognises her talent so they bring her back to the school for an IQ test. This time the admissions clerk labels her a genius, with an IQ of 167. With Maggie the smartest in the family, Lisa is jealous and tries to make herself a different person but her new identities fail. When she finds she is a little too bitter, she runs away from home and finds refuge in the Natural History Museum. The police track her down and bring the family there to find her. The family, minus Maggie, gets caught in a giant working model of the digestive system. With Maggie at the controls, she almost drowns her entire family until Lisa apologises and helps her push the right button. Ths school informs the family that all along Maggie was just relaying answers that Lisa subconsciously gave her, and not a genius after all.moreless

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    0 0

  • How the darker, more sinister Simpsons can be a good thing at times.

    9.4
    "Superb"
    By CraigDavidson, Dec 12, 2006 Report Abuse
    What's not to say about this episode? Sure this episode is dark at times, like most of the Series in the past few years, especially with Lisa becoming tired and hungry and penniless after running away from home, but it is combined with a good sense of drama, the likes of which has not been seen since the early days of the series. Also Alf Clausen has done a brilliant job with the score, continuing to prove that it is a major character the equal of Bart or Homer.
    In short a brilliant episode, yet not an absolute classic.moreless

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  • This episode is great. Two fantastic Simpsons episodes in a row.

    8.5
    "Great"
    By JohnnySeidz, Jul 11, 2006 Report Abuse
    Two good episodes in a row? Wow! I thought the appearance of Simon Cowell would be pretty awful and leave me really annoyed, but he suited the character perfectly and he was made fun of a fair bit.

    The opening was very good and quickly led into the main storyline... no waiting around for five minutes until some silly antics had finished (there were silly antics in the opening, but they didn't last long). There were a lot of great moments in the episode, such as Homer and the spelling machine (Hu-O-Meh-Eh-Err and later, Z-Z-Z-Z-Z...) and Bart's line: "Welcome to... the others!".

    I actually can't think of anything bad at all in the episode, apart from we saw too much of Wiggum, Lou and Eddie in the museum, it got a little tiresome. And Maggie playing the saxophone at the end was pretty strange, even if she is really smart.
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  • Maggie smarter than Lisa?

    8.5
    "Great"
    By jimbo_001, Jan 30, 2006 Report Abuse
    This plot was a very creative one with great jokes, one of my favourite scenes being homer and his speller that can't seem to pronounce Homer's name. The two sides of the tongue was a great idea (sour and sweet), deciding Lisa's mood. I don't watch American Idol (or Australian Idol for that matter), so I didn't appreciate the guest star of Simon Cowell but this didn't make the episode any worse. there were a couple of scenes that didn't have too much humour but not that many and this is one episode that I did enjoy watching and could watch at least a couple more times.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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  • Notes

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    • During the end credits, you hear Simon making comments about various members of the production team.
    • Blackboard Joke: None. Couch Gag: A dry-cleaning conveyor is suspended above the couch. The conveyor is filled with numerous garment bags. The conveyor begins moving and then stops, with each member of the family in a garment bag, hanging above their respective place on the couch.

  • Quotes

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  • Allusions

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    • Simon Cowell: She's as common as an angry woman in an Ibsen play. Cowell's revelation that Maggie is only smart because she's watching Lisa is similar to the case of Clever Hans at the turn of the century. Hans was a horse reputed to be able to think. He would answer yes and no questions and add and subtract numbers, answering by tapping a hoof. Oskar Pfungst, a young German psychologist, proved the horse was responding to the nonverbal cues of the questioner--head nods, finger movements, eye twiches, and such--that they weren't aware they gave. So in short, horses can't think. Ibsen was an Icelandic playwright who invented the realistic drama and wrote Lady From the Sea, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, which are stark tragedies with female protagonists.
    • What Ever Happened to Baby Jane The sequence with the older Lisa and Maggie is a parody of the 1962 film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
    • :
      Lisa staying in the Natural History Museum is a reference to the book "The Mixed Up Files of Ms. Basil E. Frankweiler," in which kids ran away from home and lived in the local museum.

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