The Good, the Sad and the Drugly
Encyclopedia
"The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" is the seventeenth episode of the twentieth season of the animated television series The Simpsons
, and the 437th episode overall. It originally aired on Fox
in the United States on April 19, 2009. In the episode, Bart
sets up Milhouse
to take the fall for a prank the two of them pulled, and the duo's friendship becomes strained when Bart falls for a charitable girl named Jenny. He starts making her think he's actually good and not bad. Meanwhile, Lisa
goes insane when she finds articles on the Internet predicting that Springfield
will be a barren wasteland in fifty years.
The episode was written by Marc Wilmore
and directed by Rob Oliver. It features actress Anne Hathaway
as Jenny. "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" received generally mixed reviews from critics for its similarities with other episodes and the 2006 Indian musical comedy film Lage Raho Munna Bhai
. According to the Nielsen ratings
, the episode was watched by 6.50 million households in its original airing.
loosen every bolt and screw in Springfield Elementary, leading to mass chaos when the building and its contents fall apart. Milhouse is apprehended by Principal Skinner and suspended from school for a week (and subsequently grounded). Bart, whose involvement with the prank was not discovered, promises to visit Milhouse every day. Homer
drops Bart off at Springfield Retirement Castle to visit Grandpa. There, Bart is immediately smitten with a kind and charitable girl named Jenny. Bart makes a concerted effort to appear "good" to Jenny, demonstrating his newfound good nature by defending ducklings and eventually inviting Jenny over for dinner. However, Milhouse shows up on the Simpsons' doorstep and threatens to reveal Bart's true, dark nature because Bart forgot to visit him during his suspension. Milhouse begins appearing on Bart and Jenny's outings, each time hinting at Bart's misdeeds. Eventually, Bart confesses to Jenny that he was actually bad before he met her and only pretended to be good to start a relationship. He continues to say that he is changed completely because of being with her. Jenny, though momentarily pleased by Bart's honesty, cannot forgive or trust Bart, and angrily leaves him.
Meanwhile, Lisa
is assigned to write a report on what Springfield
will look like in the year 2059. When she discovers online reports about soap for drinks instead of water, a world war
over a tiny drop of oil, a parking lot
yet to be filled forever and a polar bear
committing suicide by hanging himself, she is filled with anxiety
and depression
and terrifies her classmates with her dark visions of the oceans rising from global warming
, turning humanity and the lowlands into a desert and darkness falling upon Ninevah. Homer
and Marge
take her to a psychiatrist, who prescribes Lisa "happy pills" known as "Ignorital". Lisa is initially skeptical, but after taking her first pill she loses touch with her problems and sees pollution (as well as everything else) as smiley faces. In her love-induced stupor, she nearly kisses a running fan held by Maggie
, and Marge decides that Lisa should not take the pills anymore. She tosses them in the wastebasket, where they are promptly eaten by Santa's Little Helper. When Maggie (most likely doing it intentionally) holds the fan up to him, he (off screen) licks the fan himself.
Heartbroken, Bart is at the Kwik-E-Mart, drowning his sorrows on a couple of Squishees. Soon, a back to normal, Lisa shows up and wisely tells him that he should try to deal with his heartbreak by apologizing to Milhouse for neglecting to visit him during his last few days of suspension. She relates a story of her own about her own problems with her depression for the future of the world. After taking Ignorital, she lost sense of her reality and kept seeing happy faces everywhere she went. In her addicted stupor, she almost kissed her fan until Marge intervened and threw her pills away. Bart decides to take Lisa's advice, buy a bouquet of roses, and apologizes to Jenny for lying to her about his true character and Milhouse for his neglect to visit him.
In the end, it is revealed that the apology and roses are for Milhouse. The two friends reconcile and play a prank together, repeatedly driving a Zamboni
over the floor of the school until it is as slippery as ice. They then wait for the bell and watch as the school kids slide around while fake snow falls simulating an out-door ice rink
.
and directed by Rob Oliver. In September 2008, it was announced that Anne Hathaway
would guest star as Bart's girlfriend in a future episode. Hathaway, who has been a Simpsons fan since the shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show
, said that she grew up watching The Simpsons with her brothers, and said that "it stuck with me...high school, college, post, everything. I always stop whenever it's on." She said that she "flipped out" when she was offered a guest role and that it "might be the most [...] exciting thing" that has ever happened to her. The episode marked the first time she did a voice-over to an animation that was not animated beforehand. Hathaway described her character Jenny as a "good girl" but "not necessarily bland" and "a little complicated, [and] a little judgemental".
, "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" was watched by 6.50 million households in its original in the United States on April 19, 2009. It received a 3.0 rating in the 18–49 demographic, and was the second most-watched series in the Animation Domination block, after Family Guy
and ahead of American Dad!
and the series premiere of Sit Down, Shut Up.
Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict said that it "isn't a bad episode [...] It's just not very original", as he thought it "borrows heavily" from past episodes, stating: "I'll gladly defend the show against those who say it's no longer funny, but episodes like this make it hard to defend against those who say that 20 seasons on it's just more of the same." Robert Canning of IGN
gave the episode 7.5/10, and said that "a lot of the basic ideas found in "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" have been mined before in episodes of The Simpsons, but said that the episode "was using the classic episodes as an inspiration and not simply ripping them off." Canning said that Hathaway "did a fine job", but said that "there was nothing extreme in the part that she was called upon to perform, so in essence Jenny could have been performed by anybody."
Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club
said that the episode "relied on a few old chestnuts, plot-wise," and "benefited from a pretty straightforward A story [with] no weird digressions or preludes that go nowhere, and a minimum of Homer-centric buffoonery."
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and the 437th episode overall. It originally aired on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on April 19, 2009. In the episode, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
sets up Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
to take the fall for a prank the two of them pulled, and the duo's friendship becomes strained when Bart falls for a charitable girl named Jenny. He starts making her think he's actually good and not bad. Meanwhile, Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
goes insane when she finds articles on the Internet predicting that Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
will be a barren wasteland in fifty years.
The episode was written by Marc Wilmore
Marc Wilmore
Marc Wilmore is a television writer, producer, and actor. In the early 1990s, he was a writer for In Living Color, and became a regular cast member in the final season, widely considered the worst season of the show. From 1999-2001, he served as a writer for the claymation series The PJs, and...
and directed by Rob Oliver. It features actress Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
as Jenny. "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" received generally mixed reviews from critics for its similarities with other episodes and the 2006 Indian musical comedy film Lage Raho Munna Bhai
Lage Raho Munna Bhai
Lage Raho Munna Bhai is a 2006 Indian musical comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is the second film in the popular Munna Bhai series of Bollywood. Sanjay Dutt stars in this film as Munna Bhai, a Mumbai underworld don, who begins to see the spirit of...
. According to the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, the episode was watched by 6.50 million households in its original airing.
Plot
Milhouse and BartBart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
loosen every bolt and screw in Springfield Elementary, leading to mass chaos when the building and its contents fall apart. Milhouse is apprehended by Principal Skinner and suspended from school for a week (and subsequently grounded). Bart, whose involvement with the prank was not discovered, promises to visit Milhouse every day. Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
drops Bart off at Springfield Retirement Castle to visit Grandpa. There, Bart is immediately smitten with a kind and charitable girl named Jenny. Bart makes a concerted effort to appear "good" to Jenny, demonstrating his newfound good nature by defending ducklings and eventually inviting Jenny over for dinner. However, Milhouse shows up on the Simpsons' doorstep and threatens to reveal Bart's true, dark nature because Bart forgot to visit him during his suspension. Milhouse begins appearing on Bart and Jenny's outings, each time hinting at Bart's misdeeds. Eventually, Bart confesses to Jenny that he was actually bad before he met her and only pretended to be good to start a relationship. He continues to say that he is changed completely because of being with her. Jenny, though momentarily pleased by Bart's honesty, cannot forgive or trust Bart, and angrily leaves him.
Meanwhile, Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
is assigned to write a report on what Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
will look like in the year 2059. When she discovers online reports about soap for drinks instead of water, a world war
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....
over a tiny drop of oil, a parking lot
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
yet to be filled forever and a polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
committing suicide by hanging himself, she is filled with anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
and depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and terrifies her classmates with her dark visions of the oceans rising from global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, turning humanity and the lowlands into a desert and darkness falling upon Ninevah. Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
take her to a psychiatrist, who prescribes Lisa "happy pills" known as "Ignorital". Lisa is initially skeptical, but after taking her first pill she loses touch with her problems and sees pollution (as well as everything else) as smiley faces. In her love-induced stupor, she nearly kisses a running fan held by Maggie
Maggie Simpson
Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Maggie was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James...
, and Marge decides that Lisa should not take the pills anymore. She tosses them in the wastebasket, where they are promptly eaten by Santa's Little Helper. When Maggie (most likely doing it intentionally) holds the fan up to him, he (off screen) licks the fan himself.
Heartbroken, Bart is at the Kwik-E-Mart, drowning his sorrows on a couple of Squishees. Soon, a back to normal, Lisa shows up and wisely tells him that he should try to deal with his heartbreak by apologizing to Milhouse for neglecting to visit him during his last few days of suspension. She relates a story of her own about her own problems with her depression for the future of the world. After taking Ignorital, she lost sense of her reality and kept seeing happy faces everywhere she went. In her addicted stupor, she almost kissed her fan until Marge intervened and threw her pills away. Bart decides to take Lisa's advice, buy a bouquet of roses, and apologizes to Jenny for lying to her about his true character and Milhouse for his neglect to visit him.
In the end, it is revealed that the apology and roses are for Milhouse. The two friends reconcile and play a prank together, repeatedly driving a Zamboni
Ice resurfacer
An ice resurfacer is a truck-like vehicle or smaller device used to clean and smooth the surface of an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by Frank J. Zamboni in 1949 in the city of Paramount, California...
over the floor of the school until it is as slippery as ice. They then wait for the bell and watch as the school kids slide around while fake snow falls simulating an out-door ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
.
Production
"The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" was written by Marc WilmoreMarc Wilmore
Marc Wilmore is a television writer, producer, and actor. In the early 1990s, he was a writer for In Living Color, and became a regular cast member in the final season, widely considered the worst season of the show. From 1999-2001, he served as a writer for the claymation series The PJs, and...
and directed by Rob Oliver. In September 2008, it was announced that Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
would guest star as Bart's girlfriend in a future episode. Hathaway, who has been a Simpsons fan since the shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show was an American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and onetime pop singer Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the Fox network's second primetime series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy shorts...
, said that she grew up watching The Simpsons with her brothers, and said that "it stuck with me...high school, college, post, everything. I always stop whenever it's on." She said that she "flipped out" when she was offered a guest role and that it "might be the most [...] exciting thing" that has ever happened to her. The episode marked the first time she did a voice-over to an animation that was not animated beforehand. Hathaway described her character Jenny as a "good girl" but "not necessarily bland" and "a little complicated, [and] a little judgemental".
Reception
According to the Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" was watched by 6.50 million households in its original in the United States on April 19, 2009. It received a 3.0 rating in the 18–49 demographic, and was the second most-watched series in the Animation Domination block, after Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
and ahead of American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
and the series premiere of Sit Down, Shut Up.
Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict said that it "isn't a bad episode [...] It's just not very original", as he thought it "borrows heavily" from past episodes, stating: "I'll gladly defend the show against those who say it's no longer funny, but episodes like this make it hard to defend against those who say that 20 seasons on it's just more of the same." Robert Canning of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the episode 7.5/10, and said that "a lot of the basic ideas found in "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" have been mined before in episodes of The Simpsons, but said that the episode "was using the classic episodes as an inspiration and not simply ripping them off." Canning said that Hathaway "did a fine job", but said that "there was nothing extreme in the part that she was called upon to perform, so in essence Jenny could have been performed by anybody."
Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
said that the episode "relied on a few old chestnuts, plot-wise," and "benefited from a pretty straightforward A story [with] no weird digressions or preludes that go nowhere, and a minimum of Homer-centric buffoonery."