Lisa the Skeptic

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"Lisa the Skeptic"
The Simpsons episode
The townspeople see the "angel" "come to life".
Episode no.Season 9
Episode 8
Directed byNeil Affleck
Written byDavid X. Cohen
Production code5F05
Original air dateNovember 23, 1997 (1997-11-23)
Guest appearances
Episode features
Simpsons (also in towels) arrive, but leave sheepishly as the three men glare at them.
CommentaryMatt Groening
Mike Scully
David X. Cohen
George Meyer
Yeardley Smith
Pete Michels
Episode chronology
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"The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" 		Next →
"Realty Bites"
The Simpsons season 9
List of episodes

"Lisa the Skeptic" is the eighth episode of the

Scopes Monkey Trial. The episode also makes allusions to actual hoaxes, such as the Cardiff Giant
.

It has been discussed in the context of ontology, existentialism, and skepticism; it has also been used in Christian religious education classes to initiate discussion about angels, science, and faith.

Plot

Homer attempts to claim a motorboat from a "police raffle" that turns out to be a sting operation. While returning home, the family passes a new mall being built on an area where a number of fossils were found. Lisa protests and the management allows Springfield Elementary to conduct an archaeological survey. During the excavations, Lisa finds a human skeleton with wings. Springfield's residents are convinced it is the remains of an angel, and Homer cashes in by moving the skeleton into the family's garage, charging visitors to see it.

Lisa remains skeptical and asks scientist Dr. Stephen Jay Gould to test a sample of the skeleton. When Dr. Gould appears at the Simpson house the next day to tell Lisa that the tests were inconclusive, Lisa goes on television to compare the belief in angels to the belief in fictional things, such as leprechauns. In response, Springfield's religious zealots go on a rampage to destroy all scientific institutions. Appalled with the violence, Lisa goes into the garage to destroy the skeleton, but finds that it has disappeared. The mob soon converges on the Simpson household, and Lisa is arrested and put on trial for destroying the skeleton.

Before the trial even begins, the skeleton is seen outside the courtroom. Everyone rushes to it to see a foreboding message added to the skeleton, warning that "The End" will come at sundown. Sunset approaches and the citizens gather around the skeleton, but nothing happens. As Lisa reprimands them, a booming voice from the skeleton silences her and announces, "The End... of high prices!" The skeleton is then hoisted over to the entrance of the new Heavenly Hills Mall. Lisa realizes the whole event was a publicity stunt for the mall, and criticizes management for taking advantage of peoples' beliefs. She attempts to boycott them, but the bargain-loving public shrugs off the exploitation and goes shopping, while Dr. Gould confesses that he never actually tested the sample. Marge observes that while it was talking, Lisa believed the angel was real. She denies this, but admits she was frightened, and thanks her mother for her support.

Production

A closeup of a man in front of a microphone. He has a receding hairline and wears dark-framed glasses.
David X. Cohen wrote the episode after being inspired by a visit to the American Museum of Natural History.

"Lisa the Skeptic" was written by

Scopes Monkey Trial.[2] Writer George Meyer convinced him instead to have the focus be on an angel skeleton, while keeping an emphasis on the conflict between religion and science.[2] Both Cohen and Meyer acknowledged how silly the "angel skeleton" idea was owing to simple questions raised such as why an angel died and why bones were left behind, but they went forward with the idea anyway.[2]

In an early draft of the script, the skeleton was made of pastry dough baked by the mall's window dresser.[2] Cohen had initially written the Stephen Jay Gould role as a generic scientist or paleontologist, not knowing that they would eventually get Gould. He had taken Gould's Introduction to Paleontology class at Harvard University.[2] The only phrase Gould had objected to in the script was a line that introduced him as the "world's most brilliant paleontologist".[3] His original final line was "I didn't do the test. I had more important work to do", but it was cut because the writers felt it would be funnier to give him a short final line.[2] In an earlier version of the episode, Marge would have ended up apologizing to Lisa for not supporting her, letting the ending be more of a nod to Lisa's correct assumptions all along.[2]

Themes

Author Joley Wood compared "Lisa the Skeptic" to an

Allmovie noted that Lisa symbolically stood for the side of reason, while her mother Marge symbolized belief and spirituality in the episode.[9]

In their 2010 book The Simpsons in the Classroom, Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay note that the episode is one of the best for teachers and professors to use in religion or cultural studies courses, noting the irony that though Lisa is the only skeptic through most of the episode, she is the only one who is offended at the publicity stunt.

religious hysteria and blind faith, and also attempted to reconcile science within her own belief system.[12] He also wrote that when Lisa asks Stephen Jay Gould to estimate the age of the skeleton, the issue is never raised of why angels or other spiritual entities would even leave skeletons behind in the first place.[12]

Cultural references

The scene in the courtroom where Lisa is put on trial for stealing the skeleton is seen as a reference to the 1920s

Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, which dealt with issues of separation of church and state and the debate between creationism and evolution.[12] The publicity stunt created by the mall developers in the episode has been compared to scientific hoaxes such as the Cardiff Giant and the Piltdown Man.[12] When Lisa asks if the townspeople are outraged at the end of the episode for being fooled by a publicity stunt, Chief Wiggum is about to answer her but is distracted when he catches sight of a Pottery Barn in the new Heavenly Hills mall.[7] A shot of the diggers in silhouette against the sunset is modeled after Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).[13]

Reception

In its original broadcast, "Lisa the Skeptic" finished 37th in ratings for the week of November 17–23, 1997, with a

Nielsen rating of 9.5, equivalent to approximately 9.3 million viewing households. It was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files and King of the Hill.[14]

Donald Liebenson wrote for the

Amazon.com movie review that "Bart Sells His Soul" and "Lisa the Skeptic" were among the best episodes of The Simpsons. He also noted, "Without being preachy (or particularly funny), this episode is pretty potent stuff", citing the theme of Apocalypticism towards the end of the episode.[15]

In the July 26, 2007 issue of Nature, the scientific journal's editorial staff listed the episode among "The Top Ten science moments in The Simpsons".[16]

"Lisa the Skeptic" was utilized in a

Sunday School class in 2003, to stimulate a discussion among fourteen-year-olds about belief in angels, and the juxtaposition of science and faith.[17] The episode was compared and contrasted with Proverbs 14:15.[17]

The episode is used by the

Calvin College have also analyzed the religious and philosophical aspects of the episode, including the issue of faith versus science.[19]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8143-2849-1
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cohen, David S. (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Skeptic" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  3. ^ Scully, Mike (2006). The Simpsons season 9 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa the Skeptic" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ISBN 978-1-891053-02-3
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7456-3316-9
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8126-9433-8
    .
  7. ^ a b c Turner 2005, pp. 172, 227, 267.
  8. ISBN 978-1-932100-70-9
    .
  9. Allmovie
    . Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  10. ISBN 978-0-7864-4490-8
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-0-664-22590-2
    ., Pages 15–18.
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-664-22419-6
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-00-738815-8
    .
  14. ^ "CBS no. 1 as sweeps month nears end". Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. November 28, 1997. p. 4E.
  15. Amazon.com. Archived from the original
    on March 9, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2007.
  16. PMID 17653163
    .
  17. ^ a b Jarvik, Elaine (December 12, 2003). "Sun-Doh! School — Teachers use pop culture to appeal to masses". Deseret Morning News. Archived from the original on May 30, 2008. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  18. ^ a b Taylor, Tessa (Autumn 2004). An Introduction to Philosophy: The Wit and Wisdom of Lisa Simpson (PDF). St Mary's College, Durham: Farmington Institute. pp. 30–32. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 2, 2011.
  19. Grand Rapids Press
    . pp. Page B1.

Bibliography

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to "Lisa the Skeptic".
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