Bart vs. Australia
Encyclopedia
"Bart vs. Australia" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season
of The Simpsons
. It originally aired on the Fox network
in the United States on February 19, 1995. In the episode, Bart
is indicted
for fraud
in Australia
, and the family travels to the country so Bart can apologize. The Australian Parliament decides to give him the additional punishment of a boot to his buttocks, but the Simpson family
refuses. Bart later changes his mind and agrees to the punishment, but just as he is about to receive it, he moons
the Australians and the family flees back to America.
The episode was written by Bill Oakley
and Josh Weinstein
and directed by Wes Archer
. It features cultural references to films such as Mad Max 2 and Crocodile Dundee
. "Bart vs. Australia" acquired a Nielsen rating of 9.1 and was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network the week it aired. It received mixed reception in Australia, with some Australian fans saying the episode was a mockery of their country.
notices that the water in the sink always drains counterclockwise
. Lisa
explains that the water never drains the other way except in the southern hemisphere
, due to the Coriolis effect, but Bart does not believe her. To confirm this, Bart makes phone calls to various countries in the southern hemisphere. Lisa points out how expensive international calls are, so Bart decides to make a collect call
instead. He calls Australia
, where a little boy answers the phone. Pretending to represent the "International Drainage Commission", Bart is informed that the toilet and sink are both draining clockwise. Frustrated, Bart asks him to go and check the toilets of the neighbors. The call takes six hours to complete, since the boy lives in the outback
, and Bart forgets to hang up the phone. Later, the boy's father is billed A$
900. The father calls Bart and demands that he pay, but Bart only taunts him. Unfortunately for Bart, the father's neighbour is a federal Member of Parliament, who reports Bart's offense to the Prime Minister
—who is relaxing in a nearby pond.
After a long series of ignored letters, Australia indicts Bart for fraud. The United States Department of State
wants to send him to prison in order to placate the Australian government, but Marge
furiously objects to this idea. The State Department then settles on having Bart publicly apologize in Australia. The family is sent to Australia and they stay in the American Embassy
, which is fitted with all the comforts of their home country, including a specially modified toilet that overcomes an exaggerated Coriolis effect. Then they start exploring the local culture.
After Bart makes his apology, the parliament reveals that they want to give him the additional punishment of a "booting", which is a kick in the buttocks using a giant boot. Bart and Homer
escape and the family flees to the American Embassy. After a prolonged standoff, the two governments propose a compromise to the Simpson family: one kick from the Prime Minister, through the gate of the embassy, with a regular shoe, believed to be a wingtip. Marge is opposed to the idea, but Bart agrees. However, Bart dodges the kick, moons
the Australians with the words "don't tread on me
" written on his buttocks, then hums "The Star-Spangled Banner
". The Simpson family flee the outraged country in a helicopter. Looking down on Australia, they see that bullfrogs have begun to overpopulate
and destroy the Australian ecosystem
, due to a bullfrog
Bart left earlier at the airport. Viewing the devastation, the family remark upon the destruction that can be caused by introducing a foreign species into a new environment, and laugh at the Australians' misfortune, unaware that a koala
is hanging onto the helicopter. The camera repeatadly zooms in on the koala, ending with a close-up of its eye, implying that America will face a similar fate to Australia.
and Josh Weinstein
, and directed by Wes Archer
. The writing staff wanted to do an episode where the Simpsons family traveled to Australia, because they thought everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and that they "would get the jokes". The staff had previously poked fun at several American institutions on the show and they thought it would be interesting to poke fun at a whole nation. They designed Australia and the Australian people very inaccurately and many things were completely made up for fun. The animators, however, got two Australian tourist guides to help them out with the design of the Australian landscape and buildings, as well as the American Embassy. The writers did research on the Coriolis effect
for this episode. Lisa's explanation of the effect is incorrect; it affects global weather patterns and is caused by the spinning of the globe on its axis. The amount of water in a toilet or sink is much too small to be affected by it.
In 1999, Fox Studios Australia
in Sydney
used a different version of "Bart vs. Australia" as part of their Simpsons attraction, called The Simpsons Down Under. They had contacted the Simpsons writing staff and asked if they would write the screenplay for a ride in their attraction, based on this episode. The episode was re-edited and re-animated for the ride and new scenes were included. The attraction featured motion capture technology, allowing audience members faces and expressions to be transformed into moving cartoon characters.
The plot of the episode is based on the story of Michael Fay
, an American teenager who was caned
in Singapore
in 1994 for vandalizing cars. This episode perpetuated a popular myth that the Coriolis effect affects the motion of drains in the Northern
and Southern Hemisphere
s. In reality, the Coriolis effect affects global weather patterns. The amount of water in a toilet or sink is much too small to be affected by it.
When Bart is talking to the boy's father on the phone he says "I think I hear a dingo
eating your baby", referencing the case of Azaria Chamberlain
, a ten-week-old baby who was believed to be eaten by dingoes. The bullfrogs taking over Australia and destroying all the crops is a reference to the cane toad
, originally introduced to Australia in order to protect sugar canes from the cane beetle
, but became a pest in the country
.
When the Simpson family go to an Australian pub, Bart plays with a pocketknife at the table and a man asks him: "You call that a knife?", and as the man draws a spoon from his pocket he says: "This is a knife." The scene is a reference to a famous scene from Crocodile Dundee
in which Mick Dundee is threatened by some thugs with a switchblade
, and Mick takes out a bowie knife
and says; "That's not a knife, this is a knife!" The Simpson family is shown a slide show by the US Department of State depicting a boarded up cinema with a sign out the front saying "Yahoo Serious Festival", in reference to the Australian actor and director Yahoo Serious
. Wez, one of the characters from the 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
, is seen in the Australian mob that chases Bart and Homer to the American Embassy.
, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies."
Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics. In a DVD review of the sixth season, Ryan Keefer said "all the Australian jabs you expect to have here are present. Bart's international incident is hilarious, from top to bottom. The phone calls he makes to other countries (particularly Buenos Aires
) are fantastic. This is one of the more under appreciated episodes in the series' run." Vanity Fair
named it the second best episode of The Simpsons in 2007. "Bart vs. Australia" was also nominated for an Emmy Award
in 1995 in the category "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special".
The episode received mixed reception in Australia, with some Australian fans saying the episode was a mockery of their country. Shortly after it had aired, the Simpsons staff received over 100 letters from Australians who were insulted by the episode. They also received letters from people complaining about the Australian accents used in the episode that "sounded more like South Africa
n accents". The Simpsons writer and producer Mike Reiss
claimed that this episode is Australia's least favorite, and that "whenever we have the Simpsons visit another country, that country gets furious, including Australia". He claimed that they were "condemned in the Australian Parliament after the episode had aired".
The Newcastle Herald
' s James Joyce said he was shocked when he first saw the episode: "Who are the Americans trying to kid here? I agree Australia has its faults, as does any other country. But laughing in our face about it, then mocking our heritage was definitely not called for. It embarrassed and degraded our country as well as making us look like total idiots". Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, advised that the episode is "best if watched with Australians who will be, perhaps understandably, aggrieved at their portrayal. After the attack on the French, this is a vicious, unkind, offensive and wonderfully amusing slaughter of Australian culture by the makers of The Simpsons".
The Simpsons executive producer David Mirkin
, who produced the episode, responded to the criticism in an interview with The Newcastle Herald by saying: "We like to have the Simpsons, the entire family, travel and this was the beginning of that. Australia was a fantastic choice because it has lots of quirky visual things. And it's a country that is really very close to America, very in sync with America. We are so similar but yet there are all these fantastic differences, familiar yet twisted. It was intentional to make it very inaccurate. That was our evil side coming out: We'll take our knowledge of Australia and we'll twist it around to stimulate an audience and annoy them at the same time". Despite being criticized for mocking the country, the episode received positive reviews from Australians too. Jim Schembri of the Australian newspaper The Age
named it the funniest episode ever.
The Simpsons (season 6)
The Simpsons sixth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994 and May 21, 1995 and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
of The Simpsons
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...
. It originally aired on the Fox network
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 February 19, 1995. 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...
is indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and the family travels to the country so Bart can apologize. The Australian Parliament decides to give him the additional punishment of a boot to his buttocks, but the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
refuses. Bart later changes his mind and agrees to the punishment, but just as he is about to receive it, he moons
Mooning
Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, whether also exposing the genitals or not...
the Australians and the family flees back to America.
The episode was written by Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
and Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
and directed by Wes Archer
Wes Archer
Wesley Meyer Archer is a television animation director. He was one of the original three animators on The Simpsons' Tracey Ullman shorts and subsequently directed a number of The Simpsons episodes before becoming supervising director at King of the Hill. A...
. It features cultural references to films such as Mad Max 2 and Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee
"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton....
. "Bart vs. Australia" acquired a Nielsen rating of 9.1 and was the fourth highest rated show on the Fox network the week it aired. It received mixed reception in Australia, with some Australian fans saying the episode was a mockery of their country.
Plot
While in the bathroom, 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...
notices that the water in the sink always drains counterclockwise
Clockwise
Circular motion can occur in two possible directions. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top...
. 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...
explains that the water never drains the other way except in the southern hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
, due to the Coriolis effect, but Bart does not believe her. To confirm this, Bart makes phone calls to various countries in the southern hemisphere. Lisa points out how expensive international calls are, so Bart decides to make a collect call
Collect call
A collect call in the USA and Canada or reverse charge call in the UK and other countries is a telephone call in which the calling party wants to place a call at the called party's expense...
instead. He calls Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where a little boy answers the phone. Pretending to represent the "International Drainage Commission", Bart is informed that the toilet and sink are both draining clockwise. Frustrated, Bart asks him to go and check the toilets of the neighbors. The call takes six hours to complete, since the boy lives in the outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
, and Bart forgets to hang up the phone. Later, the boy's father is billed A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
900. The father calls Bart and demands that he pay, but Bart only taunts him. Unfortunately for Bart, the father's neighbour is a federal Member of Parliament, who reports Bart's offense to the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
—who is relaxing in a nearby pond.
After a long series of ignored letters, Australia indicts Bart for fraud. The United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
wants to send him to prison in order to placate the Australian government, but 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...
furiously objects to this idea. The State Department then settles on having Bart publicly apologize in Australia. The family is sent to Australia and they stay in the American Embassy
Embassy of the United States in Canberra
The Embassy of the United States in Canberra is the embassy of the United States to Australia. It is one of the largest embassies in the Australian capital of Canberra. It is in the Georgian style of architecture, and was also inspired by the architecture of Christopher Wren. The foundation stone...
, which is fitted with all the comforts of their home country, including a specially modified toilet that overcomes an exaggerated Coriolis effect. Then they start exploring the local culture.
After Bart makes his apology, the parliament reveals that they want to give him the additional punishment of a "booting", which is a kick in the buttocks using a giant boot. Bart and 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...
escape and the family flees to the American Embassy. After a prolonged standoff, the two governments propose a compromise to the Simpson family: one kick from the Prime Minister, through the gate of the embassy, with a regular shoe, believed to be a wingtip. Marge is opposed to the idea, but Bart agrees. However, Bart dodges the kick, moons
Mooning
Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, whether also exposing the genitals or not...
the Australians with the words "don't tread on me
Gadsden flag
The Gadsden flag is a historical American flag with a yellow field depicting a rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. Positioned below the snake is the legend "DONT TREAD ON ME." The flag was designed by and is named after American general and statesman Christopher Gadsden. It was also used by the...
" written on his buttocks, then hums "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
". The Simpson family flee the outraged country in a helicopter. Looking down on Australia, they see that bullfrogs have begun to overpopulate
Carrying capacity
The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment...
and destroy the Australian ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
, due to a bullfrog
Bullfrog
The American bullfrog , often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is an aquatic frog, a member of the family Ranidae, or “true frogs”, native to much of North America. This is a frog of larger, permanent water bodies, swamps, ponds, and lakes, where it is usually found...
Bart left earlier at the airport. Viewing the devastation, the family remark upon the destruction that can be caused by introducing a foreign species into a new environment, and laugh at the Australians' misfortune, unaware that a koala
Koala
The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
is hanging onto the helicopter. The camera repeatadly zooms in on the koala, ending with a close-up of its eye, implying that America will face a similar fate to Australia.
Production
The episode was written by Bill OakleyBill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
and Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
, and directed by Wes Archer
Wes Archer
Wesley Meyer Archer is a television animation director. He was one of the original three animators on The Simpsons' Tracey Ullman shorts and subsequently directed a number of The Simpsons episodes before becoming supervising director at King of the Hill. A...
. The writing staff wanted to do an episode where the Simpsons family traveled to Australia, because they thought everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and that they "would get the jokes". The staff had previously poked fun at several American institutions on the show and they thought it would be interesting to poke fun at a whole nation. They designed Australia and the Australian people very inaccurately and many things were completely made up for fun. The animators, however, got two Australian tourist guides to help them out with the design of the Australian landscape and buildings, as well as the American Embassy. The writers did research on the Coriolis effect
Coriolis effect
In physics, the Coriolis effect is a deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with counter-clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the right...
for this episode. Lisa's explanation of the effect is incorrect; it affects global weather patterns and is caused by the spinning of the globe on its axis. The amount of water in a toilet or sink is much too small to be affected by it.
In 1999, Fox Studios Australia
Fox Studios Australia
Fox Studios Australia is a major movie studio located in Sydney, Australia, occupying the site of the former Sydney Showground at Moore Park...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
used a different version of "Bart vs. Australia" as part of their Simpsons attraction, called The Simpsons Down Under. They had contacted the Simpsons writing staff and asked if they would write the screenplay for a ride in their attraction, based on this episode. The episode was re-edited and re-animated for the ride and new scenes were included. The attraction featured motion capture technology, allowing audience members faces and expressions to be transformed into moving cartoon characters.
Cultural references
Michael P. Fay
Michael Peter Fay is an American who briefly shot to international notoriety when he was sentenced to caning in Singapore as an 18-year-old in 1994 for theft and vandalism...
, an American teenager who was caned
Caning
Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits with a single cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks or hand . Application of a cane to the knuckles or the shoulders has been much less common...
in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
in 1994 for vandalizing cars. This episode perpetuated a popular myth that the Coriolis effect affects the motion of drains in the Northern
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
and Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
s. In reality, the Coriolis effect affects global weather patterns. The amount of water in a toilet or sink is much too small to be affected by it.
When Bart is talking to the boy's father on the phone he says "I think I hear a dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
eating your baby", referencing the case of Azaria Chamberlain
Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain was a nine-week-old Australian baby girl, who disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip to Uluru with her family. Her body was never found. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo...
, a ten-week-old baby who was believed to be eaten by dingoes. The bullfrogs taking over Australia and destroying all the crops is a reference to the cane toad
Cane Toad
The Cane Toad , also known as the Giant Neotropical Toad or Marine Toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad which is native to Central and South America, but has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean...
, originally introduced to Australia in order to protect sugar canes from the cane beetle
Cane beetle
The cane beetle, Dermolepida albohirtum, is a native Australian beetle and a pest of the sugar cane. Adult beetles eat the leaves of sugar cane but greater damage is the done by their larvae hatching underground and eating the roots, which either kills or stunts the growth of the plant.Larvae,...
, but became a pest in the country
Cane toads in Australia
The cane toad is an invasive species in Australia. The cane toad is the largest species in the family Bufonidae. Adult cane toads are usually heavy-built and weigh an average of up to 1.8kg. . Their size may vary from 15-23 cm. and their skin is warty...
.
When the Simpson family go to an Australian pub, Bart plays with a pocketknife at the table and a man asks him: "You call that a knife?", and as the man draws a spoon from his pocket he says: "This is a knife." The scene is a reference to a famous scene from Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee
"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton....
in which Mick Dundee is threatened by some thugs with a switchblade
Switchblade
A switchblade is a type of knife with a folding or sliding blade contained in the handle which is opened automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated A switchblade (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, switch, Sprenger, Springer,...
, and Mick takes out a bowie knife
Bowie knife
A Bowie knife is a pattern of fixed-blade fighting knife first popularized by Colonel James "Jim" Bowie in the early 19th Century. Since the first incarnation was created by James Black, the Bowie knife has come to incorporate several recognizable and characteristic design features, although its...
and says; "That's not a knife, this is a knife!" The Simpson family is shown a slide show by the US Department of State depicting a boarded up cinema with a sign out the front saying "Yahoo Serious Festival", in reference to the Australian actor and director Yahoo Serious
Yahoo Serious
Yahoo Serious , born Greg Pead , is an Australian film actor, director and score composer. He is best known for his 1988 comedy Young Einstein. He also created Reckless Kelly in 1993 and Mr. Accident in 2000...
. Wez, one of the characters from the 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Mad Max 2 is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller. The film is the second installment in the Mad Max film series, with Mel Gibson starring as Max Rockatansky...
, is seen in the Australian mob that chases Bart and Homer to the American Embassy.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Bart vs. Australia" finished 56th in the ratings for the week of February 13–19, 1995, with a Nielsen rating of 9.1. It was the fourth highest rated show on Fox that week. The episode has since become study material for sociology courses at the University of CaliforniaUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies."
Since airing, the episode has received positive reviews from fans and television critics. In a DVD review of the sixth season, Ryan Keefer said "all the Australian jabs you expect to have here are present. Bart's international incident is hilarious, from top to bottom. The phone calls he makes to other countries (particularly Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
) are fantastic. This is one of the more under appreciated episodes in the series' run." Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
named it the second best episode of The Simpsons in 2007. "Bart vs. Australia" was also nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in 1995 in the category "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special".
Reaction in Australia
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n accents". The Simpsons writer and producer Mike Reiss
Mike Reiss
Michael "Mike" Reiss is an American television comedy writer. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series The Simpsons and co-created the animated series The Critic...
claimed that this episode is Australia's least favorite, and that "whenever we have the Simpsons visit another country, that country gets furious, including Australia". He claimed that they were "condemned in the Australian Parliament after the episode had aired".
The Newcastle Herald
The Newcastle Herald
The Newcastle Herald is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, the largest non-capital city in Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the entire Hunter and Central Coast regions six days a week...
The Simpsons executive producer David Mirkin
David Mirkin
David Mirkin is an American feature film and television director, writer and producer. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he became a stand-up...
, who produced the episode, responded to the criticism in an interview with The Newcastle Herald by saying: "We like to have the Simpsons, the entire family, travel and this was the beginning of that. Australia was a fantastic choice because it has lots of quirky visual things. And it's a country that is really very close to America, very in sync with America. We are so similar but yet there are all these fantastic differences, familiar yet twisted. It was intentional to make it very inaccurate. That was our evil side coming out: We'll take our knowledge of Australia and we'll twist it around to stimulate an audience and annoy them at the same time". Despite being criticized for mocking the country, the episode received positive reviews from Australians too. Jim Schembri of the Australian newspaper The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
named it the funniest episode ever.
External links
- "Bart vs. Australia" at The Simpsons.com
- "Bart vs. Australia" at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...