Lisa the Vegetarian
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"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons
Synopsis
The family visits the petting zoo at Storytown Village and is immediately enraptured as they see one little lamb after another, each one more absurdly adorable than the one before it. That night, Marge serves lamb for dinner, and Lisa cannot eat it. She keeps hearing the bleating voice of the lambs at the petting zoo--"Li-i-i-sa, I thought you lo-o-o-ved me-e-eee!" Lisa pushes her plate away, crying, "I can't eat this. I can't eat a poor little lamb!" Her mother, trying to help, offers up rump roast, chicken breast, and hot dogs instead, but Lisa suddenly makes the connection between these dishes and their living counterparts. "No I can't! I can't eat any of them!"
At school, her newfound vegetarianism becomes a problem when she is almost forced to dissect a live worm whom she imagines pleading, "Li-i-isa, what did I ever do to you-u-u-u?" She's a little confused ("Why does it talk like a lamb?") but no less committed to her cause, and so she refuses to dissect it. At lunch, the only vegetarian option is a hot dog bun, which Lunchlady Doris proclaims "rich in bunly goodness." (In the Mexican dubbed version, Doris claims it's "rich in wheat and mustard"). Her caustic questioning of the exact point when Doris lost her enthusiasm for her job results in the secret 'independent thought' alarm she's triggered that day, prompting Principal Skinner to have all coloured chalk removed from the classrooms, and to show the students a film depicting why meat-eating is a good thing (with the rather dubious belief that cows consider eating humans). At home her new found vegetarian stance is not tolerated or understood very well either, with Homer and Bart both mocking her for rejecting meat. Homer even starts a dance line "You don't win friends with salad" when Lisa asks him to serve something else at his upcoming barbecue instead of traditional meat.
Meanwhile, Homer hosts his barbecue complete with roast pig. Lisa - who is becoming increasingly self-righteous regarding her vegetarianism - brings gazpacho but is laughed out of the yard and into her room, where she sulks on her bed and resents the partygoers for rubbing their carnivorous habits "in [my] face." Just then, a hamburger haphazardly flipped by Homer flies through her window and lands on her face.
Enraged, Lisa climbs aboard a riding mower, and drives away with the roast pig in tow. Homer and Bart chase after her, but she pushes the pig off of a slope and they're too late.
Back at home, Lisa and Homer are too angry to speak to one another. They fight and she leaves the house. While walking, she is mocked by classmates and hit with a barrage of meat-related advertisements. And so the pressures to conform to an omnivorous society are too great, prompting her to grab a hot dog off of the grill at the Kwik-E-Mart, take a bite, and shout, "There! Is everybody happy now?"
However, Apu - himself a vegetarian - tells her that she has, in fact, eaten a tofu dog and takes her through a secret passageway to the Kwik-E-Mart roof to meet guest stars Paul and Linda McCartney. One brief heart-to-heart later, Lisa is committed once more to vegetarianism. She also learns an important lesson from Apu: "I learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can influence people without badgering them always."
Thus inspired, she returns home to make up with her father, and finds him in the street shouting her name and espousing his fear of everyone knowing him to be a bad father. Lisa apologizes to Homer, admitting she had no right to ruin his barbecue; he forgives her and offers her "a piggyback--I mean, a veggieback ride."
Quotes
- Skinner: Uh oh. Two independent thought alarms in one day. The students are overstimulated. Willie! Remove all the colored chalk from the classrooms.
Willie: [angrily] I warned ya! Didn't I warn ya? That colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself! - Ned Flanders: [at his barbecue] I've got family here from all over the world. This is José Flanders.
José Flanders: Buenos ding-dong-diddly-dias, señor.
Ned Flanders: And this is Lord Thistlewick Flanders.
Lord Thistlewick Flanders: Charmed. [nudged by Ned] Uh, a-googly-doogly.
Ned Flanders: Ha ha. Terrific. - Homer: I'll show you, Flanders! I'm going to have my own barbecue, and I'll only invite who I want!
Ned Flanders: Can I come?
Homer: Sure...d'oh! - Animatronic Wolf: Come out, come out, or I'll bloooow your house in.
Animatronic Pigs: Not by the hairs of our chinny chin chin.
Bart: What a load of crappy crap crap.
Homer: Quiet, boy. I have a feeling some bad stuff is about to go down.
Marge: [to Maggie] This is where the wolf blows down the pigs house.
Bart: [sarcastically] He blows, all right. He blows big time.
Marge: That's it, honey, get into the spirit! - Jimmy: [disturbed by what he saw on the "killing floor"] Uhh, Mr. McClure? I have a crazy friend who says it's wrong to eat meat. Is he crazy?
Troy: No, just ignorant. You see, your crazy friend never heard of "The Food Chain." Just ask this scientician.
"Scientician" : [looks up from microscope] Uh…
Troy: He'll tell you that, in nature, one creature invariably eats another creature to survive.
[Sequence of "nature" footage shows a lion attacking a gazelle, an eagle carrying off a sheep, a dog catching a Frisbee, and a gorilla reaching for some bananas, until a shark eats him.] - Troy: Don't kid yourself, Jimmy! If a cow ever got the chance, he would eat you and everyone you cared about!
[Dramatic zoom onto a cow.]
Jimmy: Wow, Mr. McClure. I was a Grade A moron to ever question eating meat.
Troy: You sure were, Jimmy. You sure were. [begins rubbing Jimmy's head]
Jimmy: You're...hurting...me! - Ralph Wiggum: When I grow up, I’m going to Bovine University!
- Lisa: No, I can't! I can't eat any of them!
Homer: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Lisa, honey, are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: [chuckles] Yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal. - Ralph: Miss Hoover, my worm went in my mouth then I ate it, can I have a new one?
Miss Hoover: No, Ralph, there aren't any more. Just try to sleep while the other children are learning.
Ralph: Oh boy, sleep! That's where I'm a Viking! - Lisa: Uhh, excuse me? Isn't there anything here that doesn't have meat in it?
Doris: Possibly the meatloaf.
Lisa: Well, I believe you're required to provide a vegetarian alternative.
Doris: [picks up a hot dog in a bun, shakes the weiner out, and slaps the bun down on Lisa's tray] Yum. It's rich in bunly goodness.
Lisa: [drolly] Do you remember when you lost your passion for this work? - Homer: You don't win friends with salad!
- [Bart and Homer chase Lisa until she pushes the pig grill off the top of a slope. The pig passes through a hedge.]
Homer: It's just a little dirty. It's still good, it's still good!
[Passes traffic, jumps a bridge and lands in the water.]
It's just a little slimy, it's still good, it's still good!
[It gets caught in a dam spillway, and when the pressure builds, it shoots into the sky.]
It's just a little airborne, it's still good, it's still good!
Bart: [crestfallen] It's gone.
Homer: I know. - Mr. Burns: You know, Smithers, I think I'll donate a million dollars to the local orphanage...when pigs fly!
[They start laughing, but the grilled pig suddenly passes by flying.]
Smithers: Will you be donating that million dollars now, sir?
Mr. Burns: Nooo, I'd still prefer not. - Lisa: You don't eat cheese, Apu?
Apu: No, I don't eat any food that comes from an animal.
Lisa: Ohh, then you must think I'm a monster!
Apu: Yes, indeed I do think that. But, I learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can influence people without badgering them always. It's like Paul's song, Live and Let Live.
Paul McCartney: Actually, it was Live and Let Die.
Apu: Whatever, whatever. It had a good rhythm. - Paul: Oh, and by the way, I'm alive.
- Lisa: [reading Homer's BBQ invitations] "Come to Homer's BBBQ. The extra B is for BYOBB."
Bart: What's that extra B for, Dad?
Homer: That's a typo. - Marge: (After Lisa drives by on a lawnmower) Bart!!! No!!!
Bart: What?
Marge: Sorry, force of habit. Lisa!!! No!!!
Trivia
- The version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" that plays over the end credits is an original mix by the Simpsons staff that when played backwards contains snippets of Paul McCartney reciting a recipe for lentil soup – a throwback to an earlier gag. One of the backwards snippets says "Oh, and by the way, I'm alive." - a reference to the Paul is Dead theory. The backwards speech in the track is also a reference to this theory. The recited recipe can be found on the "Extras" section on Disc 1 of the seventh season DVD box set.
- One of Paul McCartney's stipulations for doing the guest spot was that Lisa's conversion to vegetarianism be a permanent one. Thus, it is an instance of continuity in the Simpsons universe that has been strictly held to.
- The pig that Homer was roasting and blasted into the air, it flies over the Mr. Burns nuclear power plant, is a direct reference to the Pink Floyd's Animals album cover (see also Pink Floyd pigs).
External links
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