Bart Gets an Elephant

Plot

Bart wins a contest on Bill and Marty's radio show and chooses a full-grown African elephant instead of the prize money. After listeners send angry mail and letter bombs, the station's boss forces the DJs to find an elephant for Bart. They leave it on the Simpsons' front lawn. Bart names the elephant Stampy and ties him in the backyard.

Lisa argues that keeping an elephant is cruel, while Homer worries about the cost. Homer and Bart try to offset expenses by feeding Stampy complimentary peanuts from Moe's Tavern and leaves from a public park, then charge customers to pet and ride him. When raising admission fees into the thousands still fails to cover costs, Homer and Marge decide Stampy must go. A game reserve representative offers a suitable habitat, but Homer rejects it for lacking profit.

Mr. Blackheart, a wildlife poacher and ivory dealer, offers to buy Stampy. Homer agrees, but Bart and Lisa disapprove. Bart and Stampy run off, wreaking havoc across Springfield. The family finds them at the Springfield Tar Pits, where Homer gets stuck in a tar pit.

After Stampy pulls Barney Gumble from the pit, Stampy frees Homer. Homer reluctantly donates the elephant to the wildlife reserve. Bart says goodbye as Stampy bullies the other elephants at the reserve.

Production

John Swartzwelder wrote the episode and Jim Reardon directed it. Matt Groening considered it a quintessential Swartzwelder episode, and David Mirkin called it a fantastic job by one of the show's most prolific writers. Mirkin's main goal was to make Stampy a rude, cantankerous animal that never fully bonds with the family, unlike other animals on the show. For instance, Stampy would put people in his mouth instead of on his back. Stampy later appeared in the season nine episode Miracle on Evergreen Terrace, the season fourteen episode Large Marge, and briefly in The Simpsons Movie. The episode also introduced Cletus Spuckler, shown as one of the slack-jawed yokels gawking at Stampy. Cletus is not named in the episode, so the staff referred to him as the Slack-Jawed Yokel.

Cultural references

The Springfield Tar Pits are inspired by the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. The museum in the background resembles the George C. Page Museum of the La Brea Discoveries. When Stampy runs away, he passes the Republican National Convention with people cheering, then the Democratic National Convention with people booing, referencing the elephant as the Republican Party symbol. Homer uses Mr. Cleanser, a parody of Mr. Clean, to clean the basement.

Bart accidentally scrubs the paint off an American Gothic painting, revealing a message from Grant Wood implying the Simpsons stole it. The scene of Stampy's eye through a window resembles a Tyrannosaurus rex scene in Jurassic Park. Marge turns on the radio and hears Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis; Bart says You said it, Ernie, referencing Tennessee Ernie Ford. Homer crashing his car into a deer statue parodies the Sound of Music song Do-Re-Mi as Homer shouts D'oh!, Lisa says A deer!, and Marge says A female deer!

Homer reads an old TV Guide synopsis for Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and imagines Carter yelling Pyle! and Pyle responding Shazam! Patty and Selma are sucked up by a tornado in rocking chairs, similar to Ms. Gulch in The Wizard of Oz.

Reception

When "Bart Gets an Elephant" first aired, it pulled in a Nielsen rating of 10.7, meaning about 10 million households tuned in, placing it 42nd for the week of March 28 to April 20, 1994. Still, it was the top-rated program on Fox during that period. The episode later won an Environmental Media Award for Best Television Episodic Comedy and a Genesis Award for Best Television Comedy Series, the latter given by the Humane Society for highlighting animal exploitation.

Critics have generally been kind to it. Gary Russell and Gareth Roberts called it a favorite, crediting Homer's extreme stupidity and the "D'oh! A deer! A female deer!" joke, which BBC News's Mark Milne also found hilarious.

Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide noted that while the premise could have been cheesy, the episode turned out very well, and he especially liked Homer's line about communism working in theory. Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave it an A, and Bill Gibron of DVD Talk rated it 4 out of 5.