The Parent Rap
Encyclopedia
The Parent Rap” is the second episode and official premiere of the thirteenth season
The Simpsons (season 13)
The Simpsons thirteenth season originally aired on the Fox network between November 6, 2001 and May 22, 2002 and consists of 22 episodes. The show runner for the thirteenth production season was Al Jean who executive-produced 17 episodes...

 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on November 11, 2001. 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...

 and his father, 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...

, are sentenced by the cruel judge Constance Harm to be tethered to each other as a result of Bart stealing police chief Wiggum's car. Eventually, Homer's wife, 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...

, is fed up with the punishment and cuts the rope, which instead leads to Judge Harm sentencing them to have their heads and hands locked up in wooden stocks.

The episode was written by George Meyer
George Meyer
George A. Meyer is an American producer and writer. Raised in Tucson, Arizona in a Roman Catholic family, Meyer attended Harvard University. There, after becoming president of the Harvard Lampoon, he graduated in 1978 with a degree in biochemistry. Abandoning plans to attend medical school, Meyer...

 and Mike Scully
Mike Scully
Mike Scully is an American television writer and producer. He is known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1997 to 2001. Scully grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts and long had an interest in writing. He was an underachiever at school...

, who also served as the show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...

 for the episode, and Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...

 worked as the director. The writers based the story on “a couple of incidents” in real life in which troublesome children, through alternative sentencing, were tethered to their parents. The episode marks the first appearance of the infamous and notoriously cruel Judge Constance Harm, who is played by actress Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. Kaczmarek is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee...

. When it was first broadcast, “The Parent Rap” was watched by 14.4 million viewers, making it the second most watched show of its timeslot that night. After its release on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 and Blu-ray, however, the episode garnered mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

When Homer makes Bart and Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....

 walk to school, the boys get into trouble and are arrested for stealing Chief Wiggum's squad car. Milhouse gets off but when Bart comes to the bench, Judge Constance Harm takes over and lays down the law. She holds Homer responsible for Bart's deeds and sentences him and Bart to be tethered together.

Marge finally gets fed up with the punishment and cuts the tether. Only now, she and Homer get brought back before Judge Harm and have their heads and hands locked up in old-fashioned wooden stocks. Not being able to bear the punishment any longer, they break free and decide to get back at the judge. When the plan goes awry, they accidentally sink the judge's houseboat and are once again brought into court. Just as Judge Harm is ready to bang her gavel, Judge Schneider comes back from his fishing trip and declares a verdict of "Boys will be boys," dismissing the case.

Production and cultural references

“The Parent Rap” was co-written by George Meyer
George Meyer
George A. Meyer is an American producer and writer. Raised in Tucson, Arizona in a Roman Catholic family, Meyer attended Harvard University. There, after becoming president of the Harvard Lampoon, he graduated in 1978 with a degree in biochemistry. Abandoning plans to attend medical school, Meyer...

 and Mike Scully
Mike Scully
Mike Scully is an American television writer and producer. He is known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1997 to 2001. Scully grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts and long had an interest in writing. He was an underachiever at school...

, and Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland is an American director. He has directed 69 episodes, from 1990-present, of The Simpsons, more than any other person.-Career:...

 served as the director for the episode. It was first broadcast 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 November 11, 2001. Even though "Treehouse of Horror XII
Treehouse of Horror XII
“Treehouse of Horror XII” is the first episode of The Simpsons thirteenth season. Because of Fox’s contract with Major League Baseball’s World Series, the episode first aired on the Fox Network in the United States on November 6, 2001, nearly one week after Halloween. It is the twelfth annual...

" - the first episode of the thirteenth season - had aired the previous week, "The Parent Rap" was considered the official premiere of the season. “The Parent Rap” was the last episode written in its production line. “As I recall, we got toward the end of the season and we had to write another episode in a hurry”, said Meyer in a DVD audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...

 for the episode. The writing staff contributed a rough outline for the episode, and Meyer and Scully went into one of the writer's room and “basically, kind of locked [themselves] in for five days” writing the episode. Meyer and Scully both thoroughly enjoyed the writing process of the episode; “It really came together easily”, stated Meyer, “...because we had known each other so long and were comfortable with each other's style”. Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Maxtone-Graham is an American television writer and producer. He has written for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons , and has also served as a co-executive producer and consulting producer for The Simpsons...

, one of the writers for The Simpsons, commented that the draft Meyer and Scully had written was “awfully good”.

The episode was based on “a couple of incidents” that the writers had heard about in which troublesome children, through alternative sentencing, were tethered to their parents. The scene in which Homer and Marge get spanked by Springfield's citizens as part of their punishment was also based on an alternative sentencing, in which the sentenced had to wear certain shirts or signs that indicated whether they, for example, had not paid taxes. The scene in which Bart accidentally drives away with police chief Chief Wiggum's police car was based on one of Scully's friends in high school, who stole a still running police car parked at a Dunkin Donuts while the police was in the store. The episode featured the first appearance of judge Constance Harm, portrayed by American actress Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Frances Kaczmarek is an American actress. She is best known for playing the character of Lois on the television series Malcolm in the Middle. Kaczmarek is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee...

. The character's name was conceived by Meyer, who had always thought that Constance was a scary name. The episode makes a reference to Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...

's hit song “Don't Fear the Reaper”, which also plays during the episode's end credits, and inspired the title of a later episode
Don't Fear the Roofer
"Don't Fear the Roofer" is the sixteenth episode of the sixteenth season of The Simpsons. It was originally broadcast on May 1, 2005 and guest-stars comedian Ray Romano. The episode is a parody of the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind.-Plot:...

. Meyer later got to meet the band, who said that they were “stoked” to be referenced in a Simpsons episode.

Reception

In its original American broadcast on November 11, 2001, “The Parent Rap” was seen by approximately 14.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...

. The episode received a 6.9 rating/16 share among adults between ages 18 and 49, making it the second most watched television show of the night in its demographic, losing the number-one spot to Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...

. The episode was listed among the 15 most watched shows in its demographic that week.
Following the episode's broadcast, as well as the home video release of thirteenth season of The Simpsons, “The Parent Rap" received generally mixed reviews from critics. Writing for NY Daily News, Eric Mink gave the episode a mixed review. "To be sure, the show has its moments", wrote Mink, "But there's not much zip here, and the show has, of all things, a warm-and-fuzzy ending... 'The Simpsons' and warm-and-fuzzy is not a healthy combination". Nate Boss of Project-Blu described the episode as “filler” and praised the episode's concept, but criticized how the episode was executed. Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide also gave the episode a mixed response, and wrote that “'Rap' starts with a clever – if absurd – concept”, but “does little to churn good comedy out of its theme”, and concluded by calling the episode “disappointing”. Writing for Obsessed With Film, Adam Rayner described the episode as “woefully weak” and “an example of the farcical that the series would fall deeper and deeper into”. He did, however, praise the episode for being original. Jennifer Malkowski, reviewing the season for DVD Verdict, was more positive towards the episode. Giving the episode a rating of B+, Malkowski listed “The Parent Rap” among episodes in the season where “We see wacky scenarios force Homer to bond with his family, to a rather heartwarming effect”. Ron Martin of 411Mania was also favorable, calling the episode “decent”.

External links

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