The Simpsons: Bart Gets an "F" really is a memorable episode

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Cheddahz

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I grew up loving and obsessing over The Simpsons and I was never a huge fan of this episode growing up, but over the years, it has slowly become one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons

Summary of the episode (it'll be in spoilers, for those who have never seen it):
You see Bart on the verge of failing the fourth grade (and we can see that Homer and Marge don't pay too much to his achievements before the meeting with the school counselor) and as a result of this, he vows to everyone that he'll make it out of the fourth grade and he recruits the bookworm Martin to help him, but in return, Bart must show Martin how to be "popular". Things don't work out between them an Bart prays for a miracle (which Lisa overhears) and that night, a blizzard hits Springfield and school ends up being cancelled. While everyone is out having fun for the day, Bart decides to exile himself from society by going into the basement and spending the whole day studying. In the end, he ends up slapping himself to prevent himself from not day-dreaming (which is witnessed by the whole family). The next day, he takes the exam and ends up failing it with a high F, but manages to recite an important section of the exam and he ends up barely passing the exam.

To me, this episode hits hard. While I was growing up in elementary school, I never had trouble with tests, but whenever I got into middle school, I started to have trouble with them and it's not like I didn't care (I wasn't someone who only worried about school), but I really did try and I did feel like the "failure" to everyone around me. I mean hell, the way Bart acts in this episode is the way a lot of my friends were like in high school (it's not like they cared, but studying and what not never did them that much good)

The scene where Bart ends up crying (which is in the OP) is probably one of the most depressing moments in an television show for me, because you know Bart worked his butt off to try and get a passing grade and he just fell short of it (which is pretty common in life) and I don't know, this episode has just really become memorable to me over the years
 
It's a good episode, but the crying - even though it's supposed to feel real, and be over an event that would legitimately be traumatic - always just felt awkward and out-of-place with his character.
 
I thought they don't fail kids no more. They just pass and graduate after 10-12 years of school.
 
terrisus said:
It's a good episode, but the crying - even though it's supposed to feel real, and be over an event that would legitimately be traumatic - always just felt awkward and out-of-place with his character.
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I'm going to disagree. He's 9, and not even delinquents are fine with failing an entire year.
 
-COOLIO- said:
I'm going to disagree. He's 9, and not even delinquents are fine with failing grades.
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Given the wide variety of other events that he's been involved with and had happen to him...

And, the reality of the situation is it's not like it would just be some surprise at the end of the year, there would have (even back in 1990) been numerous conferences and such along the way.


OSHAN said:
Great.Ugh.
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Feel old now, don't you?
Considering I was 8 in 1990, so do I >.>
 
Yeah, the crying gets a bit out of me. My brother used to get trouble with his grades, so my mother always asked me if she could use the time of helping me to rather help him studying. While I never had trouble with grades, this does make me a bit sad.
 
terrisus said:
It's a good episode, but the crying - even though it's supposed to feel real, and be over an event that would legitimately be traumatic - always just felt awkward and out-of-place with his character.
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That's because his character was portrayed as usually not caring about anything enough to try. Bart was a classic underachiever scared of failure so he doesn't put any effort into succeeding in order to detach himself from the negative results. So for him to try as hard as he did and still fail.... must of crushed him.
 
Zeus Molecules said:
That's because his character was portrayed as usually not caring about anything enough to try. Bart was a classic underachiever scared of failure so he doesn't put any effort into succeeding in order to detach himself from the negative results. So for him to try as hard as he did and still fail.... must of crushed him.
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Yep, the entire point was that he tried for once in his life and learnt that he truly is the fuck-up he was always afraid of being. I'd cry too.
 
Is this the same episode he imagines himself in the future, still in the fourth grade, with his son also attending?

I liked how Mrs. Krabappel was still his teacher and after giving Bart and Bart Jr detention, Bart yells "D'oh! Thanks a lot son..." In a similar voice to Homer, the way he sounded in season 1.
 
Zeus Molecules said:
That's because his character was portrayed as usually not caring about anything enough to try. Bart was a classic underachiever scared of failure so he doesn't put any effort into succeeding in order to detach himself from the negative results. So for him to try as hard as he did and still fail.... must of crushed him.
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Dryk said:
Yep, the entire point was that he tried for once in his life and learnt that he truly is the fuck-up he was always afraid of being. I'd cry too.
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Even so, the crying just felt very awkward and out of place.
 
illmatic22 said:
Is this the same episode he imagines himself in the future, still in the fourth grade, with his son also attending?

I liked how Mrs. Krabappel was still his teacher and after giving Bart and Bart Jr detention, Bart yells "D'oh! Thanks a lot son..." In a similar voice to Homer, the way he sounded in season 1.
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Bart would be about 35 by now, so that vision should be coming true about now. :p
 
This episode represents a situation that most people who went through school came across and can relate to, I've been there I studied hard for some of my exams and ended up failing.
 
I was alright in school but I know the feeling of trying your hardest and finding out your hardest just isnt good enough.

damn you Guitar hero!
 
'Homie The Clown' & "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" are my personal favourite episodes, and two that aren't mentioned that often in "Top 10" lists. The former has a lot of quotable lines, while the latter is one of the more depressing episodes from Season 2.
 
This is how I feel with math almost all the time. The shit just comes so hard to me for some reason - psych and sociology and all that are my jam and are super easy, but mathematics and hard sciences are just so fucking hard for me to focus on. I'm always fully attentive in my Psych and history classes but I can't help but daydream in math. Really bothers me.

This episode hits home, lol.

Edit - Bruh I almost cried while taking my Pre-Cal final today, lol. I really don't want to repeat a whole semester and waste like 500 fucking dollars
 
In 5th grade I got a terrible grade on a homework paper and the teacher made me stay after class to do it over, I cried. I didn't try hard but the teacher calling me out like that hit me, I'm sure trying like bart did would have been worse.
 
terrisus said:
It's a good episode, but the crying - even though it's supposed to feel real, and be over an event that would legitimately be traumatic - always just felt awkward and out-of-place with his character.
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Yeah, but you can see this throughout all of the Simpsons' first and second seasons. Everything was still in development, and they hadn't quite nailed down the characters personalities yet. Homer was more angry and gruff, Lisa was kinda bratty, Marge's behavior was more erratic.

That's what makes revisiting Season 1-2 so interesting.
 
I used to always think of that episode when I waited until the last minute to do homework/do a project/study for a test.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I had the exact scenario happen where I was either saved by a snow day or the teacher was ill and the test was postponed...and I ended up just putting off my studying for even longer and felt 10x worse when I finally had to do it.
 
I saw Lisa's First Word the other day. one of my favorites, the ending also kind of hits you.

based Simpsons World
 
The episodes where bart and lisa played hockey together, and the one where Homer had the plaque with maggie's photos at work hit hard. I'm sure there were more, but those two stand out the most to me.

This one was great too, thanks OP - gonna watch it later.
 
Simpsons season 2 has this

tumblr_mgi6kz8ABi1qi8brmo1_400.gif


and this

tumblr_mgmj7xi1mT1qi8brmo8_250.gif


I like to think of the first two seasons of Simpsons beating other sentimental family sitcoms at their own game, and then moving onto its own thing with season 3 and on.
 
My favourite Simpsons ep of all time. The perfect balance of comedy, emotion and really good storytelling. I will never not tear up at the end.
 
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