Every Simpsons Ever: “Moaning Lisa”

Episode 6: “Moaning Lisa”

Here we have, at long last, the emotional heft that helped this show last so long. Behind the gags and the wacky characters and all the laughs, The Simpsons, at its core, is about family. And with this heart fully on the sitcom’s sleeve, Episode 6 gives viewers insight into what makes the Simpsons family (and especially Lisa) so real, and so relateable.

In this one, Lisa fits the textbook definition of “melancholy.” Hers is a listless, existential sadness, too complex for a girl of her age to concisely explain. The episode begins with a scene all-too-familiar to middle class families. While Lisa contemplates her reflection, Homer pounds on the door, waiting to use the bathroom. She’s so sad that she even turns down a cupcake (!) that Marge made.

Throughout the schoolday, Lisa’s condition affects her work.  In band practice, it’s all she can do to get through “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” without interupting with some improvised saxophonery. Her state worsens by lunch, where she can’t even muster the energy to participate in a food fight. And gym class is the worst yet; Lisa gets pelted with dodgeballs without even dodging. This is enough for school to send a note home to her parents.

“I didn’t do it. No one saw me do it. No one can prove anything.” – Bart Simpson

Meanwhile, at the Simpson house, Homer is taking a bombardment of his own. He and Bart are playing a boxing video game, and an overly-competitive Homer gets clobbered for the upteenth time.  What seems like petty competitiveness at first later reveals itself to be a deeper, generational dread. Homer recalls the day he knew he could out-compete his father. And it scares him, deeply. In a nightmare, Homer, now in the shoes of his video-game avatar, gets pummeled by his son, who dismisses him as a weak, old man. The show could’ve left Homer’s motivation as just a desire to win the game. But by raising the stakes, and showing how emasculated Homer feels, the writers really add breadth to the Bart/Homer B-story.

With neither Marge nor Homer truly sure of how to deal with Lisa’s emotions, she is left to commiserate in her room. In her pondering, Lisa overhears the distant wails of another sad sax. She sneaks out her window, and wanders through Springfield until she finds the sound’s source. Perched up on an overpass is a lone saxophone player, who introduces himself to Lisa as Bleeding Gums Murphy. Despite his insistence that the middle Simpson has no real problems, Bleeding Gums most concede that she does play the blues awfully well.  But, wary of her child’s disappearance, Marge comes tearing around the corner in the family station wagon, eager to whisk Lisa away from this stranger.

“The blues isn’t about making yourself feeling better, it’s about making other people feel worse.” – Bleeding Gums Murphy

Just as Lisa has found a kindred spirit in Bleeding Gums Murphy, so too does Homer find a new friend at a local video arcade. There, he finds a young boy who has set the video-boxing record. Homer offers to pay the boy to tutor him in the ways of video-boxing mastery.  Soon enough, a few hours of tutalage, and dozens of quarters later, Homer emerges a pro, with an arsenal of tricks to kick his son’s butt.

On their way to school, Marge offers Lisa one last bit of advice on the way to school. She tells Lisa her daughter that smiling is the most important thing. Just as Marge’s mother had put such importance on outward appearance, Marge advises her middle child to bottle up her feelings and smile. And, even though she doesn’t feel like it, Lisa puts on a fake smile. But as soon as she leaves the car, other students tease her and her teacher quells her creativity. Marge whips the car around and comes to her daughter’s rescue, snatching up Lisa and saving the day.

A triumphant Homer is just about to seal a victory over Bart when Marge pulls the TV chord out of the wall, cutting the game short. She announces the family will be joining Lisa for a fun new idea, and they all gather at the Jazz Hole to hear Bleeding Gums Murphy belt out a new number that was written by their daughter.