Recap / The Simpsons S6E1 "Bart of Darkness"

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Original air date: 9/4/1994

Production code: 1F22

A summer heatwave hits Springfield, so the Simpsons build a pool to beat the heat. But when a high-dive goes wrong and Bart breaks his leg, he ends up confined to his room, which only gets worse when he believes Ned Flanders has murdered his wife, Maude.

Of note, this is the first episode since season 1 to debut on Sunday night, in a new timeslot (8 PM/7 central), a slot the show has occupied ever since.

This episode contains examples of:

• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Martin makes a Freudian slip where he says that he will be 'Queen of Summertime'. This could also be an insinuation of his orientation.
• Annoyingly Repetitive Child: Invoked when Lisa calmly explains to Homer that he has to buy a pool to avoid a whole summer of the kids chanting, "Can we have a pool, Dad?" in unison.
• Bad Humor Truck: Downplayed with the ice cream truck that looks normal, but really has no more ice cream; parodied with a rebuilt ice cream truck that... doesn't sell ice cream.
  Chili! Red hot, Texas-style chili! And we got ginger ale! Boiling hot, Texas-style ginger ale!
• Bait-and-Switch: After the Simpsons purchase their pool, a montage of them building is shown, until it's revealed they built a barn and not a pool. Even a random Amish who just happens to be there comments on it.
  Homer: Alright! Everybody in the pool!
  Amish: ‘Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool, English.
  Homer: D'oheth!!
• Big Brother Instinct: When Bart sees Flanders walking into his house with an axe while Lisa is exploring it for him, he immediately tries to save her. First, he tries calling the police since he can't walk on his leg, he then drags his way there.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: After Homer says "She's such a fox" in reference to Maude, he changes the line to "What's on FOX tonight? Something ribald^note vulgar, off-color, no doubt." At the time the episode first aired, the ribald live-action sitcom Martin (1992) had moved to 8:30 pm (Eastern standard).
• Boredom Montage: Bart gets more-and-more bored at Krusty's old reruns with themes that aren't really intended for the average ten-year old boy.
• Boring Broadcaster: Despite still being a clown in the 1960s, Krusty has guests such as AFL-CIO chairman George Meany on his show to talk about the state of unions, indicating that his intended audience was older and more high-brow than later incarnations of his show.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Bart says "D'oh!" when the bucket on his foot gets caught in the garden hose.
• Brick Joke:
  • When Martin is at the pool-mobile, bullies take his bathing suits. His last scene in the episode takes place after his pool breaks down and his bathing suit is taken away.
  • While Bart spies on people from his window, a Jimmy Stewart-esque character is watching him in return. Later, as Bart hobbles to the Flanders house, the Stewart character reappears and thinks Bart's coming after him.
• Bring the Anchor Along: Bart picks up a few items on the way to Ned's house in order to save Lisa, all getting stuck to the foot and dragging him down.
• Busby Berkeley Number: The Esther Williams variant is parodied as the kids make Lisa the star of the pool (until Homer comes in on an inner tube in his underwear drinking a beer and spitting it up as a fountain).
• Call-Back: Bart and Lisa's threat to ask Homer "CanwehaveapoolDad?" over and over again is similar to how in "Brush With Greatness", they asked Homer "Will you take us to Mount Splashmore?" over and over. Homer's clearly learned his lesson as he immediately agrees.
• The Cameo: Kang and Kodos's spaceship briefly flies by◊ right before Bart decides the universe is boring to look at.
• Captain Obvious: When Homer and Bart are underneath the tent that's connected to the fridge, Homer tells Bart, "It's cool in here, boy."
  Homer: I got the idea when I noticed the refrigerator was cold.
• Chaos Architecture: Bart's bedroom window placement is inconsistent in this episode. Marge and Lisa are able to see him through his window from the back yard but Bart can look into Flanders' house next door.
• Contrived Coincidence: The episode's plot happens through a bizarre combination of a massive Heat Wave, Nelson being a jerk, and Ned Flanders thinking that overwatering a plant makes him a murderer.
• Couch Gag: The roles of the family and the couch are reversed; with the Simpsons sitting in mid-air while the couch assembles itself and sits on the Simpsons' laps, crushing them.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Martin wears seventeen bathing suits at the pool mobile, knowing that bullies will take his. When he brags about it, the bullies take them all instantly.
    "I brought this on myself."
  • Apparently, the Springfield police have a code for regicide (the murder of a member of royalty, usually a king or a queen).
• Critical Encumbrance Failure: Martin's pool gets so filled with swimming kids that just one more jumping in makes it explode.
• Crossing The Burned Bridge: Lisa's brain tries to warn her about the False Friends using her for her pool; she tells it to shut up, she doesn't need to be smart if she has friends. Then the kids abandon her for Martin's pool, lowering the water level so far that she's trapped at the bottom.
  Lisa: I'm stuck in here... I've gotta think of a way to get out.
  Lisa's Brain: Well, well, well... look who's come crawling back.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Nelson pulls the "your epidermis is showing!" joke on Bart, and not only feels the need to explain it to Kearney, he explains it wrong.^note (He claims "epidermis" means "hair"; it actually means "skin".)
• D.I.Y. Disaster: The Simpsons' first attempt to build a pool ends with them building a barn instead.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In-Universe: the Classic Krusty reruns reveal that Krusty was originally a socio-political talk show, with guests the intended audience of the show would not be familiar with such as Ravi Shankar.
• Epic Fail: The whole family's first attempt to assemble a pool in their backyard results in them building a steel barn instead.
• Everyone Has Standards: Kearney does not look amused when Nelson causes Bart to fall off the treehouse, even before he hits the ground.
• False Friend: The neighborhood kids only befriend Bart, and then Lisa, because they have a pool. When Martin gets a bigger one, everybody abandons Lisa. Then when Martin's pool bursts, they abandon him as well (and Nelson steals his bathing suit).
• Foot Stuck in a Bucket: Exaggerated. As Bart runs to save Lisa from Ned, he gets his cast stuck on a waste basket, which then gets stuck on a bucket, which then gets caught on a garden hose, and so on. By the time he makes it to Flanders' house, he's dragging a dozen items or so, including a mailbox and a dog on a chain.
• For Inconvenience, Press "1": Bart's attempt to call the police only gets the Police Rescuephone. He gives up after he accidentally presses the code for regicide and a recorded message tells him which code to push if he knows the victim's name.
  Phoneline: If you are being murdered, or are calling from a rotary phone, please stay on the line.
• Freudian Slip:
  • Martin, while overseeing the construction of his own pool.
    Martin: Soon, I'll be queen of summertime! Oh, king. King!
  • Milhouse, while trying to get away from Bart's cast-signing request so he can play in the pool, ends up absentmindedly signing "MILPOOL" instead.
• The Fundamentalist: Maude spends the episode at a Bible camp learning to be more judgmental.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Bart gets pretty weird after being alone in his room too long, Creepy Shadowed Undereyes and all.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Lisa discovers that Bart has began writing a play while he is isolated in his room. When he later reads it aloud to her, it contains a reference to St. Swithin's Day, a relatively obscure British holiday.
  • Despite being an illiterate clown Krusty managed to have a political talk show that hosted people as influential as George Meany.
• Hope Spot: "Ice cream! Ice cream! I'm all outta ice cream! It's true, y'know."
  • "And we got ginger ale! Boiling hot, Texas-style ginger ale!"
• Idiot Ball: Martin insists on being as popular as possible by cramming as many fair-weather friends as possible into his pool as possible ("I see some space over there!"), and the pressure causes the above-ground pool to explode. Consequently, his friends leave and his shorts get stolen again.
• Implausible Deniability: Milhouse tries to get out of keeping Bart company by claiming he's left his glasses in the pool. The glasses he's wearing at that moment. Which Milhouse refuses to admit he's wearing.
• Impossibly Mundane Explanation: The reason for Ned's strange, Rear Window-like behavior is due to him panicking after overwatering a plant that his wife Maude really likes. Maude herself was away at Bible camp rather than being buried by Ned.
• Injured Limb Episode: Bart tries to dive into his pool, but thanks to Nelson teasing him, he ends up injuring his leg.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: "Face it Bart, our salvation isn't just gonna roll by on the back of some stupid truck." Cue Otto pulling up with the pool mobile.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: Turns out Nelson doesn't know what an "epidermis" is any more than Bart.
  Nelson: (to Kearney) See, "epidermis" means "hair." So technically it's true. That's what makes it so funny.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: When Bart and Lisa believe Ned Flanders has killed Maude, we see him heading up to the attic, where Lisa's hiding, carrying an axe and singing "Mary had a little lamb". Even though the audience knows it must be a Mistaken for Murderer plot (even if they've seen it before, and know exactly what's going on), it's still very creepy.
• Karma Houdini: Nelson doesn't face any consequences for causing Bart to break his leg or for ripping Martin's swim trunks off at the end.
• Kids Are Cruel: This trope is exemplified quite a bit in this episode. Nelson causes Bart to break his leg with zero remorse, then all the kids abandon both Lisa and Martin after using them for their swimming pools (and the latter's bathing suit gets stolen for no reason as well).
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Bart and Lisa get the urge to have a swimming pool and go to ask Homer for one, Lisa forces the matter when she makes it clear the two of them will spew "CanwehaveapoolDad?" ad nauseam for months on end otherwise. Homer instantly caves:
  Homer: (calmly) I understand. Let us celebrate our new arrangement with the adding of chocolate to milk.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Hans Moleman steps outside on a hot summer's day, and his coke-bottle glasses accidentally set his shirt on fire. His reaction? "Oh, rats..."
• Mistaken for Murderer: When Ned appears to have committed spousal murder, Bart, to do him credit, is initially Genre Savvy enough to realize that he must have misunderstood something and turn his attention elsewhere. After a while, though, too much "evidence" piles up for him to ignore.
• Mythology Gag: Homer proposing "the adding of chocolate to milk" is just a few steps removed from his earlier trait of proposing "frosty chocolate milkshakes".
• Naked People Are Funny: Martin at the end where his swimsuit is stripped off by Nelson after he loses his popularity. The ending zooms out on the neighborhood where Martin is standing naked singing "Summer Wind".
• Nature Is Boring: Bart is observing the various bodies of the universe through his telescope and directly states that he doesn't find it interesting.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Bart getting Grampa tarred and feathered 20 minutes before telling the rest of the family about Flanders' possibly murdering Maude. We don't know what Bart did to Grampa to make that happen, but we do see the aftermath.
  • We also don't get to see how Lisa gets out of the pool after being stranded when it empties (though it can be assumed that Marge got her out or she struggled to pull herself out).
• No Sympathy: Nelson feels absolutely no concern for Bart falling off the treehouse and breaking his leg, and no remorse for being indirectly responsible for it.
  Nelson: (while looking at Bart's unconscious form) Haw-haw!
  Milhouse: Hey, Nelson, he's really hurt. I think he broke his leg.
  Nelson: (annoyedly) I said 'Haw-haw.'"
• Not So Above It All: Homer and Bart cope with the heat wave by setting up a tent in front of the open refrigerator door to trap the cold air. Marge, accompanied by Lisa, pokes her head in to tell them why this is a bad idea. Both wind up crawling in next to them when they realize how refreshing it is. Unfortunately, Marge had a good point to begin with, as leaving the door open winds up overloading the motor.
• Old Shame: Krusty's embarrassed about his 60s "Classic Krusty" shows, which were more like a late-night talk show a la The Mike Douglas Show.
• Partially-Concealed-Label Gag: Bart thinks Ned Flanders has murdered his wife and sends Lisa into his house to investigate. Lisa goes to the freezer and pulls out a green bag labeled "human head", horrifying her and Bart. She is relieved after wiping off more frost, revealing it to be a "Schuman Farms head of lettuce".
• Pass the Popcorn: Chief Wiggum is literally snacking on popcorn as he watches Marge and Homer skinny-dipping from the police chopper.
• Police Are Useless: The Springfield Police Department's phone line has an absurdly inconvenient menu, and no telling how long it will take for someone to pick up if the person who is calling just doesn't uses it.
• Police Brutality: Wiggum orders Lou to open fire on Marge and Homer when they are skinny-dipping in their pool and (quite understandably) refuse to continue when they notice Wiggum is peeking at them from a helicopter.
• Pool Episode: During a scorching summer, the Simpson family buys a pool and soon become the most popular house on the block.
• "Rear Window" Homage: Bart breaks his leg, holes up in his room, and, after spying on his neighbors with a telescope, becomes convinced that Ned Flanders has murdered his wife. One of the things Bart sees through his rear window is Jimmy Stewart with a broken leg, looking out of his rear window.
  Stewart: Grace, c'mere! There's a sinister-looking kid I want you to see! ^note She was renamed from her character's name in the movie, "Lisa", presumably to avoid confusion.
• "Rear Window" Investigation: Parodied. Bart, injured from an accident diving into their swimming pool, overhears a scream from the Flanders house, and witnesses him burying something in the backyard. Believing Ned had murdered his wife Maude, Bart orders Lisa to go investigate. When Ned returns home early, Lisa gets trapped in the attic with Flanders, who is attempting to put away an axe (though from Bart's view it appeared Ned was threatening Lisa with the axe). It later turns out that Maude is alive, and was away at Bible camp the whole time. The scream that Bart heard earlier? It was Flanders.
• "Rear Window" Witness: Parodied. Bart thinks Ned Flanders killed his wife, when it turns out he accidentally killed his wife's favorite houseplant. The high-pitched scream Bart heard earlier came from Ned.
• Retraux: Bart watches a 1961 black and white episode of The Krusty the Klown Show. Krusty interviews George Meany on America's labor crisis.
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • Just why would anyone be selling red-hot chili and boiling Texas-style ginger ale in the middle of a massive Heat Wave? They might as well have been selling oily rags to people who are on fire.
  • Krusty clearly hates "Klassic Krusty", but he ends up rerunning it anyways, implying there is a reason why he has to air it specifically instead of more recent material.
• Sanity Slippage: Bart when he confines himself to his room after breaking his leg.
• Scenery Porn: Bart first uses the telescope to gaze upon the wonderous visuals of the universe... before calling them boring.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Turns out that Ned can do this, which is why Bart heard "a woman screaming" right before Ned started shouting "My God, What Have I Done?! I'm a murderer!"
• Shout-Out:
  • To Rear Window. Lampshaded when Bart starts spying on the town and finds Jimmy Stewart, also with his leg in a cast, doing the same thing.
  • The Itchy & Scratchy episode has mice who resemble the Talosians from the pilot of Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • To Witness, when the Simpsons accidentally make a barn instead of a pool, it references the barn raising scene. It's even Lampshaded when a random Amish guy shows up to point out Homer's blunder.
    Homer: All right, everybody in the pool!!
    Amish Man: 'Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool English.
    Homer: D'OH-ETH!!!!
  • At the beginning of the episode during the heatwave, a hippie is busking while singing "Sunshine on my Shoulders". This only earns him a punch to the face.
  • At one point, Bart is shown playing Stratego by himself.
• The Shut-In: Bart becomes this after he's forced to wear a cast all summer and is ignored by everyone using the Simpsons' new pool. He leaves the lights off in his room and Marge worries that he's becoming "isolated and weird."
• Sideways Pool Diving Sequence: During a dance montage at the pool, Lisa and some other kids stand on the edge of the pool and dive in sequentially in this fashion.
• Sincerity Mode: Homer sounds sarcastic near the end of the episode but he's being serious.
  Bart: Oh. Well, I guess that explains everything.
  Homer: Not everything! There's still the little matter of the whereabouts of your wife!
  Maude: Um, I'm right here.
  Homer: (in a sarcastic-sounding tone) Oh, I see. Then everything is wrapped up in a neat little PACKAGE! (everyone looks at him) Really, I mean that. Sorry if it sounded sarcastic.
• Skinny Dipping: Homer and Marge were both caught doing this in the family's new pool by the Springfield Police Department during the night. Weirdly though, Chief Wiggum lets them continue.
• Something Only They Would Say:
  Ned: I wish there was some other explanation for this, but there isn't! I'm a murderer! I'm a murderer!
  Bart: Then that's not the real Ned Flanders.
  Ned: I'M A MUR-DIDDLY-URDERER!
  Bart: If that's not Flanders, he's done his homework.
• Stab the Salad: Flanders chases Lisa up to the attic with an axe, muttering "time to put you away for good"... only for it to turn out that he was actually talking to the axe itself.
• Status Quo Is God:
  • This is the only episode where the Simpsons have a pool; their acquisition of an above-ground pool makes the transition back to normal that much easier.
  • Lisa loses her popularity once word got out that Martin has a bigger and nicer pool. Martin himself has an even shorter stint of popularity than Lisa due to too many kids crowding the pool and causing it to collapse.
• Talk to the Fist: Parodied during the heatwave.
  Street corner musician: (singing) Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy!
  (Just Stamp the Ticket Man punches him in the face)
• Tempting Fate:
  • The exact moment Marge asks if using the refrigerator to cool the family will overload the motor, it broke down.
  • Bart assumes he can just spend the whole summer watching Krusty. At which point Krusty announces he's going on vacation and showing boring re-runs.
  • Bart manages to tear off five (yes, five) swimsuits from Martin. Turns out he came prepared for this.
    Martin: Take your best shot! I'm wearing seventeen layers! (All the bullies in the pool rush him and tear off every single swimsuit leaving him naked. He laughs at first, thinking they failed to strip him only to realize they did) ...I brought this on myself.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: When Lisa becomes popular, she decides she doesn't need her brain anymore. It returns when everyone leaves for Martin's pool, mostly to gloat.
• Two-Person Pool Party: Homer and Marge have one late at night, but are interrupted by the police, who tried surveillance.
  Wiggum: Do not be alarmed! Continue swimming naked! Aw c'mon, continue! C'mon!...All right, Lou, open fire.
• Unfortunate Names: The models of pools the Simpsons browse through have some very unflattering names listed by the salesman: the Hick Tub, the Insta-rust, the Lightning Magnet, and the Tinkler. The latter of which Homer ends up buying because he likes the name.
• Wrong Song Gag: During the heatwave, a busker is singing, "Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy..." A random passer-by punches him in the face.
• The X of Y: "Bart of Darkness."
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • Otto says the pool-mobile is only budgeted for one day, which he then realizes is a major tease.
  • Both Lisa and Martin are heavily ostracized nerds in Springfield Elementary and get a (very fleeting) increase in popularity because they own pools, which they lose the moment Martin reveals he has a bigger pool (for Lisa) and when the pool is destroyed (for Martin — Nelson even rips off his swimsuit before leaving, adding insult to injury).
    Martin: (after the pool is destroyed and everybody is leaving) My new lifestyle! NOOOO!!!!
• Your Television Hates You: Bart thinks he can just spend the summer watching Krusty the Klown on TV, only for Krusty to announce that he's going on vacation and is rerunning boring "Klassic Krusty" episodes instead.