Smart and Smarter

From Simpsons Wiki

"Smart and Smarter" is the thirteenth episode of the fifteenth season. The episode aired on February 22, 2004.

Plot

The family, after visiting a pancake house, visits Mrs. Wickerbottom's Pre-Nursery School, where Apu and Manjula are sending two of their octuplets. Homer and Marge have a talk with Dr. Hibbert about getting in, and decide to have Maggie go in. However, Maggie fails the initial screening because she cannot talk, until Lisa discovers some traits of intelligence. Homer and Marge make another screening. The results show that not only is Maggie brilliant, but her IQ of 167 is higher than Lisa's IQ of 159. Lisa is no longer considered "the smart one" of the Simpson family. Her attempts to find a new identity, including a goth named Ravencrow Neversmiles, a cheerleader, a rapper, a soccer player, a cowgirl, and even a stand-up comedian, do not work out well.

At home, Lisa teaches Maggie false information. Homer {with the Phonics Frog} and Marge denounce her for trying to sabotage her sister's education. She leaves the house and hides in the Natural History Museum, where there is no chance of Homer and Marge finding her, until Chief Wiggum, Lou and Eddie find her in there. The family goes in the human body, but Maggie accidentally presses the swallow button, swallowing both her parents (Homer and Marge) and her remaining sibling (Bart). Maggie presses many buttons until she finally presses the evacuate button. Ironically, after Maggie saves Homer, Marge, and Bart, she no longer has a secret to her intelligence — it turns out Lisa was subconsciously showing her answers. Maggie, however, plays Lisa's saxophone in the end, showing another sign of intelligence; a worried Lisa reclaims her saxophone and tells her that it's not for babies.

Trivia

• When Marge walks inside the room angry at Lisa for purposely teaching Maggie the wrong words, along with the whole entire deck of cards she drops in surprise, two of them actually show the words on them, one spelling "Cat" (as seen before), and one spelling "Beer".
• The "You are Lisa Simpson" paper Marge gives Lisa references the episode Lisa's Substitute.
• When Lisa enters the tongue, she is first on the bitter side when she again becomes jealous of Maggie's intelligence. However, in reality the tongue doesn't have specific tastes in specific locations.

Cultural references

• The revelation at the end may refer to the now-famous case of Clever Hans, the amazing "thinking" horse who became a celebrity until a famous psychologist revealed he was bogus.
• There is a small sequence in this episode which is a parody of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, where Lisa imagines pushing Maggie (in a wheelchair) down the stairs.
• The title is a reference to Dumb & Dumber, a comedy film starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
• Henry, voiced by Simon Cowell, is an obvious parody of Cowell himself on American Idol and the X Factor (UK). The same character was redesigned for a Simpsons sketch on Idol Gives Back, where he was known to be Simon instead of Henry.
• Lisa running away to stay in a museum is a reference to the classic children's book "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler".
• Milhouse’s laugh at Lisa’s stand-up comedy routine is similar to Paul Shaffer’s laugh (or caricatures thereof) at David Letterman’s jokes.
• While Lisa is exploring the museum, the theme from Breakfast at Tiffany's plays.
• While Lisa experiments with different personas, the song Who's That Girl? by the Eurythmics plays.