Grandpa Simpson us one of the more fully formed characters out of the gate, and he’s met with an episode that matches his humor with aplomb. A fun and outrageous concept, this is a solid episode
“Bart the General“ is the first good episode of The Simpsons in my opinion. I quite enjoyed most of this one, with Bart and his friends finally getting revenge against Nelson, the school bully who makes his first appearance. It can be a bit slow at points, and the jokes aren't overly funny, but I can appreciate the story for how well-written it is.
Overall, a solid outing and a quality improvement.
This episode marks the first appearance of Nelson 'Haha' Muntz, and is yet another early episode that follows the typical two-story setup of the Simpsons: We have the entire entry story with Lisa and her cupcakes, those are the binding element that leads to the second story of Bart being bullied by Nelson and how he stands up for himself.
Unfortunately, there is nothing else I like about this episode. I like the rhyming and the ending sequence where Bart puts some "perspective" to the episode (there are not good wars - with these exceptions... :D ). But besides that, I think this episode is rather seldom funny (if at all), the story is - at least to me - uninteresting and it doesn't offer me any deeper level. So given the negative aspects over-weighing the positives a little, I end up with:
4/10 Points.
[7.5/10] There’s something so charming about the earliest seasons of The Simpsons. It feels like a different show, to be frank. The animation is cruder, but also more expressive. (See: Bart’s facial contortions when he’s being punched by Nelson). The story feels more like something from a kids’ show (the 10 year old fighting his bully) but it’s still tinged with that trademark Simpsons cynicism. It features liberal doses of characters like Herman and Nelson’s goons who are rarely seen after.
And yet it also feels like it very much has that Simpsons perspective. The conceit of doing a war film through the eyes a fourth-grade attack on a bully is hilarious and creative. (See also: visual references to Full Metal Jacket and a cornucopia of other war flicks.) The animation, while again, a little wooly, is also superb, with imaginative sequence where Bart images confronting his burly foe, and engrossing war imagery filtered by elementary school students as the water balloon attack goes full bore.
There’s also the amusement and cynicism of how the adults behave that fits the ethos of the show. Skinner is too focused on learning and order to notice that one of his students was just threatened. Marge naively tells Bart to just talk to Nelson while he’s being beat up, claiming he’s lashing out at the world. Homer ignores his wife’s “Maharishi Ghandi”-like advice and tries to teach Bart to fight dirty instead. And Grampa waxes poetic about seeing the look of terror in a man’s eyes, punctuating it with “thank god for children” in a delightfully cynical twist. The adults are as misguided as the kids here, even when well-intentioned, and that’s a Simpsons trademark in play from the beginning.
Plus, there’s plenty of good laughs here. Lisa declaring that Grampa is the toughest Simpson there is after “the fight he put up when we put him in a home,” or Grampa’s letter to Hollywood that old people are not all “vibrant, fun-loving, sex maniacs,” or Herman’s deranged ramblings about the Franco-Prussian war and water balloons that say “death from above” are all laugh-worthy moments that pepper the episode.
Heck, there’s even some nice symmetry at play, since the events of the episode begin and end with a batch of Simpson-made cupcakes. Overall, it’s one of the best episode’s of the show’s early going, showing the fun, wry edge the show brought to network television.
This has a dream sequence where Bart shoots with an automatic rifle to Nelson; those were the days before Columbine...
Shout by Kiran RadhakrishnanBlockedParent2021-06-12T22:58:58Z
The standard Simpsons style of humour seems to come in in this episode, as well as references and homages. Also the first appearances for Nelson, Mulhouse and Krusty (though unnamed and as just a poster)