Last night, the FOX Network aired the 12th episode of The Simpsons’ 35th season, entitled “Lisa Gets an F1″ (the title being a reference to the classic season-two episode “Bart Gets an F” and other episodes that referenced that one, such as “Bart’s Dog Gets an F”– also from season 2– and “Lisa Gets an A” from season 10) and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment of the long-running animated sitcom.
“Lisa Gets an F1″ begins with a flash-forward to the climax of the episode, in which the middle Simpson child is in the midst of a tense, dramatic go-kart race… then it cuts back to the present, where Lisa (voiced, as always, by Yeardley Smith) is trapped in the back seat of the family car while her father Homer (Dan Castellaneta) is driving her and her brother Bart (Nancy Cartwright) around town– rather recklessly, I might add. Bart gets haphazardly dropped off at soccer practice, and then Homer hotdogs his way to family therapy to talk about Lisa’s growing anxiety issue. “I hate it when we’re early,” murmurs Homer, even though he was the one racing to get there. When the therapist Annette (guest star Rachel Bloom from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, in her third appearance as the character since season 29) suggests that Homer’s driving might be a root cause in Lisa’s issues, Homer storms out of the meeting and pretty much immediately gets into a car accident, causing Chief Wiggum (Hank Azaria) to arrest him.
Marge Simpson (Julie Kavner) continues meeting with Annette, who suggests immersion therapy to help with Lisa’s anxiety– bringing them both to a go-kart racing track. Lisa is understandably hesitant to get behind the wheel at first, but as soon as she begins zooming around the track she begins to feel better. This leads to Lisa entering into some local kart races, followed by the inexplicable– but very funny– arrival of the International Go-Kart Racing circuit in Springfield. This results in a new Italian kid, Paolo Paoletti (also Castellaneta), enrolling in Springfield Elementary School during his stay in the town. This b-story sees Paolo disgusted by the school cafeteria food, a problem which Bart naturally steps in to help alleviate, bringing in Italian chef Luigi (another Azaria character) to make some classier dishes. Paolo showers Bart with Euros for his help, though the spiky-haired Simpson must hide his sibling relationship with Lisa from the girl’s chief go-kart rival.
Meanwhile, after Homer finally completes his community service (during which he is mistaken for a pinata and savagely beaten by kids at a birthday party), he can at long last attend one of Lisa’s races. But since Marge is no longer afraid for her daughter’s safety thanks to having witnessed a dozen races already, Homer feels he must become the designated family worrier, and spends the next act of the episode terrified for Lisa. This is epitomized in a hilarious– though brief– dream sequence that apes Nintendo’s enduring Super Mario Kart franchise of video games, in which Lisa serves as a Mario stand-in, Milhouse (Pamela Hayden) gets blasted off the track as Yoshi, and Homer is Wario. But the best line comes after Homer wakes up, tells Lisa about his dream, and then asks “What’s Mario Kart?” Then we get to the big final races, as Homer decides to stay home, Bart’s profitable friendship with Paolo comes to an end as the Italian discovers the truth, and Lisa sets out to win the first-place trophy.
Back at home, Bart discovers that he’s been accidentally left on Paolo’s group text and intercepts a message about Lisa’s kart being sabotaged, so Homer takes his car and uses it to save Lisa by brake-checking her– in a loving way. Then they embrace at the finish line after Lisa wins, with Homer vowing never to put his daughter in danger again… while the other kids and various debris are flying by in slow motion. I actually had a tremendous amount of fun with this episode, which has a solid throughline, plenty of funny gags, and some really top-notch, extremely dynamic animation. If there hadn’t already been a classic episode about Bart entering a soap-box derby with Homer’s help (season three’s “Saturdays of Thunder”) you might have been able to convince me this episode was from The Simpsons’ glory days. It also helps that another terrific guest star– British comedian Matt Berry of What We Do In the Shadows fame– played the go-kart-racing announcer Chester Arborday. But that’s just the cherry on top of an all-around excellent installment of TV’s longest-running sitcom.
New episodes of The Simpsons air Sunday evenings on FOX.