The Simpsons Project #11

The Simpsons Project #11 (Season 1, Episode 11)
The Crepes of Wrath
Original airdate: 4/15/90

Welcome back to another installment of the Simpsons Project. After today’s episode, “The Crepes of Wrath”, we only have two more episodes left in the first season to review. And it’s only taken a year and a half to get to this point! We’ll be discussing season 21 in no time!

Anywho, “The Crepes of Wrath” begins with a nice sequence of Homer stepping on Bart’s misplaced skateboard and tumbling down the stairs, throwing out his back in the process. Homer was clutching one of Bart’s talking Krusty dolls as he fell, and with Homer incapacitated, the doll becomes stuck in talk mode, repeating the phrase “I like to play with you!” until its voice wears out. Bart’s messiness causes Marge to order him to clean up his room, and in doing so Bart finds a forgotten cherry bomb that he pledges to put to good use.

Shortly thereafter, we’re introduced to Agnes Skinner, the principal’s overbearing mother (who keeps referring to him as “Spanky”). She is touring Springfield Elementary, and stops to use the bathroom at the same time Bart is flushing his cherry bomb down the toilet. Agnes is apparently blown through the roof of the school, which infuriates Principal Skinner. He visits the Simpson home and recommends Bart for the school’s foreign exchange program. According to Skinner,

“We have transcended incorrigible. I don’t think suspension or expulsion will do the trick. I think it behooves us all to consider…deportation.”

Bart capitulates and is sent to France, and the Simpsons agree to take in an Albanian boy, who Homer thinks will be “all white with pink eyes”. The episode splits into two stories at this point. The Albanian, Adil, is actually a spy, and he uses his kindness, charm, and the fact that he isn’t Bart to convince Homer to bring him to the nuclear plant so he can steal secrets. Bart, meanwhile, is put to backbreaking work by his French hosts at their rundown winery.

“The Crepes of Wrath” can be seen as Skinner’s coming out party, where he first exhibits some of his morally superior tendencies. His language and demeanor is curt and rude, but it’s guised by a sense of intellectualism and authoritativeness that allows him to get away with the things he does. His introduction of Adil to the Springfield children is full of backhanded compliments and false courtesies, as he welcomes the Albanian boy while describing his heritage as “offensive” and “backwards”.

Both Bart and Adil’s situations quickly unravel and the story returns back to normalcy. Bart finds that he has picked up enough French to tell the police of the cruel treatment he has suffered. Stateside, the FBI uncovers Adil’s espionage and deports him back to Albania.

This isn’t a terribly funny episode. Skinner has some strong moments, but the point here is to show the terrors Bart puts his family through and their unwavering love for him despite this. Laughs are light, and this may be the weakest episode of the first season.

B-

John Lacey

"You may find his accent peculiar. Certain aspects of his culture may seem absurd, perhaps even offensive. But I urge you all to give little Adil the benefit of the doubt. In this way, and only in this way, can be hope to better understand our backward neighbors throughout the world." - Principal Skinner