The Heartbroke Kid
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"The Heartbroke Kid" is the seventeenth episode of the sixteenth season of The Simpsons. The episode aired on May 1, 2005 in the US.
[edit] Synopsis
Principal Skinner is looking for a company to sign a vending machine contract with Springfield Elementary, with half of the machine's profits going to the school. He looks at suggestions of a Gumbo machine from the Sea Captain that seriously burned the sea captains hand and from Gil and rejects them, until he gets a suggestion from Lindsay Naegle, and the school has its vending machine. Some of the students like it, but the machine's biggest customer is Bart, who seems to like it too much.
A montage of Bart eating lots of sweets is seen, followed by a spoof of the intro to the show, entitled "Three Weeks Later." Everything seems normal, except instead of doing the chalkboard gag, an overweight version of Bart gets another snack from the vending machine. The school bell rings, and Bart walks away. He takes more than 9 seconds to get his skateboard. After this, he goes off on the skateboard, making cracks on the street behind him. Later, he bends a streetlight, makes several people fall and makes Chief Wiggum shoot with his gun. Then, he crashes into Marge's car. Later, we see Homer parking his car in front of the garage of the Simpson house. Bart jumps on top of the car and damages the top of it, making Homer fall out. Then, he walks slowly inside. Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie run in and sit on the couch, ready for their couch gag. But where's Bart? Everyone looks around, puzzled. Bart arrives late for the couch gag and suffers a heart attack.
Bart sees Dr. Hibbert, who says that a snack—malted milk balls—has clogged his arteries. Either way, Bart still gets addicted to junk food heavily, continuously eating it until Marge intervenes and puts Bart on a diet. When that suggestion fails, he is caught by two representatives of a maximum security fat camp, Serenity Ranch. Bart ends up there with Apu, Rainier Wolfcastle (who was last seen fattening up for a movie), and Kent Brockman, and the camp's leader is none other than former junk food magnate Tab Spangler (who is dealing with many anger issues). However, when Bart is there, the family is faced with an expensive bill. To pay for the camp, the family converts their house into a youth hostel which attracts German tourists.
Bart has a hard time at camp, and Tab Spangler takes him home to visit the family to show him the horrors that occur. He suggests Bart fight his addiction, and he does, by destroying the vending machines in school. His addiction to junk food is over, and he steals the money from the vending machines, which the family uses to pay for the bill and give the Germans "Das Boot". Tab Spangler says that they still have three weeks left of treatment, and Homer goes with him (if this is by choice or not is unknown), where the episode ends with them driving in Tab's car getting into an argument over the cheeseburger Homer is eating.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode was originally set to be the 350th episode (despite being the 352nd to air), but was inexplicably switched with "Don't Fear the Roofer".
- Spangler's car is a Volvo.
- Bart's line "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" was also said by Homer in "Homer's Triple Bypass" following one of several heart attacks, which Dr. Hibbert quickly proved to be wrong.
- The montage near the end of the first act spoofs Bart's shots in the show's opening; additionally, Barney appears in place of where the now-deceased Bleeding Gums Murphy would've appeared.
- Homer has a fantasy about a robotic Marge, a reference to "Gump Roast" where "Marge becomes a robot" is suggested as a future plotline.
- This is Albert Brooks' fifth guest staring role on The Simpsons. He is credited, as with all his episodes, as "A. Brooks".
- Homer's half-brother Herb Powell is mentioned in this episode, marking his only appearance or even mention since his starring roles in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes?" a decade and a half before.
- One of the candies that Bart eats is named Cop Killaz.
- When Lisa is reading the ingredients to a can of lemonade, she mentions that sodium poisonate and oil petroleumate are two of the ingredients. She tells everyone how bad the drinks are, but is ignored. The machine tells everyone to buy something, and when everyone does, Ralph remarks "Its fun to obey the machine!"
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of this episode is a spoof on the American professional wrestler Shawn Michaels ("The Heartbreak Kid").
- The song Homer sings for coins to the German students on vacation is "99 Luftballons".
- The song played during Bart's junkfood sequence is "Yummy yummy yummy" by The Ohio Express.
- The line "raged against the machine" is a reference to the political rap-rock band Rage Against the Machine.
- When Bart rips off the Krusty poster in his room which conceals a stash of junk food, it is a reference to "The Shawshank Redemption", where Andy DuFresne's means of escape is through a hole in the wall covered by a poster of Rita Hayworth.
- Homer says "they're melting" in a style reminiscent of The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.
- This episode's storyline is likely a satire of the real-world problem of vending machines in schools. In fact, some states have made it illegal for public schools to sell junk food to its students during school hours.
