Episode Fact File: Lisa the Tree Hugger

EA dropped us a very special redwood tree, as they released the World’s Largest Redwood update. It is based on the episode “Lisa the Tree Hugger“, the 4th episode of Season 12, and the 252nd episode to date. This Episode Fact File will recap the episode with pictures and facts. Get the scoop right after the jump!

Lisa the Tree Hugger

Episode Description:

Eager to join “Dirt First” after witnessing their pro-vegetarianism demonstration atop the local Krusty Burger franchise, Lisa attempts to prove her worth by camping out in a giant redwood destined for logging. Meanwhile, Bart joins the workforce in order to buy a new game console advertised on television.

Episode Details: ‘Lisa the Tree Hugger’ is the 4th episode of Season 12 as well as the 252nd episode of The Simpsons. The episode aired on FOX on November 19, 2000 and was written by Matt Selman and directed by Steven Dean Moore.

PLOT!:

Needing money after seeing a commercial for a new video game console, Bart is forced to get a job as a menu boy for a Thai restaurant named You Thai Now. Its owner teaches him how to deliver menus so fast nobody can see him. However, the menus he delivers soon litter Springfield, upsetting Lisa over the number of trees cut down to make them.

Later the family go to Krusty Burger, only to find a group of people dressed in cow suits protesting on the roof. She meets Jesse Grass, the hunky and non-violent leader of a radical environmentalist protest group named Dirt First, who claims to be a level five vegan (he refuses to eat anything that casts a shadow). She later joins Dirt First, and after learning that Springfield’s oldest redwood tree is about to be cut down by the Rich Texan, volunteers to camp in the tree to keep the loggers at bay. However, missing her family, she leaves the tree for a night, and returns in the morning to find the tree was struck by lightning.

Not knowing her fate, everyone in Springfield thinks Lisa died in the storm and offers condolences to the family, which Homer and Bart briefly take advantage of. The Rich Texan also decides to turn the forest into a sanctuary in memory of Lisa, but later he changes his mind and offers to build an amusement park, “Lisa Land”.

Fortunately, Lisa comes to the site, and protests the park. The log being used as the sign for Lisa Land is cut loose by Jesse and heads for Springfield’s business district, destroying the Rich Texan‘s company and eventually heads out on a cross-country journey out to the sea. Although Jesse lands himself in jail again, he has apparently not stopped his crusade for the environment.

BLACKBOARD TEXT!: “I am not the acting President”

COUCH GAG!: Maggie is on the couch. The rest of the Simpsons waddle in dressed as Teletubbies and Maggie applauds with delight.

EPISODE FACTS!:

CULTURAL REFERENCES:

• Lisa‘s quest to save Springfield’s oldest redwood tree by living in it is a reference to the real-life story of Julia Butterfly Hill and a redwood tree called “Luna“. Hill lived in the tree for two years and succeeded in preventing it from being cut down by loggers. The details of Lisa‘s day-to-day existence in her tree (such as hauling supplies up to her tent by a rope) are very similar to Hill‘s.
• The montage where Bart delivers the menus for You Thai Now is a reference to The Matrix:
  • Music from the movie’s soundtrack plays during the scene.
  • When Bart is in the apartment building, he goes into “bullet time” when he first enters the hallway, then runs along the walls as he leaves the menus on the doorknobs (referencing two of the movie’s distinctive special effects shots).
• When the giant log destroys Kentucky Fried Panda, Homer exclaims “No! It was finger-ling-ling good!”, which is a reference to Kentucky Fried Chicken and its slogan, “Finger-Lickin’ Good”, and to either or both of two famous giant pandas named Ling-Ling:
  • Ling-Ling of Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing fame, who lived from 1969 to 1992. The pair were a gift from China to the USA in 1972.
  • Ling Ling, who resided at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo and lived from 1985 to 2008.
• Kentucky Fried Panda may also be a reference to the fast-food chain Panda Express, which serves American-Chinese cuisine.

TRIVIA:

• After Marge sings a song about thrift, Bart exclaims that he doesn’t have a cap; however, he is seen wearing his lucky red hat in some episodes, commercials, comics and games.
• Jesse points out that whichever member of Dirt First stays in the redwood won’t be able to come back down “Not even for a Phish concert”. In “Weekend at Burnsie’s” several members of Dirt First are seen at the Phish concert.

GOOFS:

• Lenny Leonard has gray hair in the group of people.
• When Lisa is sitting on the couch watching a TV program that mourns her rumored death, her tongue is pink instead of red.

SPECIAL GUEST!:

• Joshua Jackson as Jesse Grass

PROMOTIONAL IMAGE!:

That is all from this special Episode Fact File and I would like to thank WikiSimpsons for the information for this post and Nathan for the base design of it.

WikiSimpsons: Season 12 Page, Lisa the Tree Hugger

Till next time, Happy Tapping everyone!

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This pictures and videos are from the “Lisa the Tree Hugger” episode of FOX show The Simpsons. Their use is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law.