My Sister, My Sitter (The Simpsons)

"My Sister, My Sitter (The Simpsons)"
Even if you have a grudge against Lisa, she doesn't deserve this.
Series: The Simpsons Part of Season: 8 Episode Number: 17 Air Date: March 2, 1997 Writer: Dan Greaney Director: Jim Reardon Previous episode: Brother from Another Series Next episode: Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment

My Sister, My Sitter is the seventeenth episode of the eight season of The Simpsons.

Plot

Lisa's babysitting reputation is tested when she is assigned the task of babysitting Bart and Maggie.

Bad Qualities

1. Bart is extremely unlikable here, as tries to make Lisa's babysitting job a living nightmare and he acts like a huge brat. If the episode were to take place directly after the events of On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister (even though that aired 8 years later), it would have been karmically justified, but that’s not the case here.
2. Here's another problem with this episode that can only be asked away by one single question: How can a 10-year-old boy like Bart be babysat by an 8-year-old girl like Lisa? What's the logic or joke behind that?
   • The idea of Lisa babysitting Bart is completely stupid and pointless because this episode would have been more logical if Bart and Lisa had been put in charge of babysitting Maggie instead. After all, she's the littlest one of all the Simpsons siblings.
3. Lisa gets tortured for absolutely no reason at all, and neither does it feel satisfying because Lisa didn't do anything bad in this episode to deserve all the torture that she gets.
4. Some of the moments are far too disturbing like Bart trying to hurt himself to make Lisa look like a bad babysitter by putting himself unconscious to make Lisa even more miserable!!
5. When Lisa calls 911 to say that Bart is unconscious, she is rejected by the operator because of Bart's actions earlier in the episode which is rather incompetent and unrealistic for the operator to do that because the operators for 911 should always respond to emergency calls, even if it's a false alarm.
6. Somewhat Half-Bad Ending: Lisa gets exposed for "bad babysitting" near the end of the episode, even though Bart is the one to blame because of his bad behavior.
   • In addition, Bart gets away scot-free for the bad stuff he did, leaving Lisa to be the pariah of the Springfield townspeople.

Good Qualities

1. The first act was pretty good, along with some parts of the second act.
2. There are tons of funny moments and dialogue in this episode:
   • This scene:
     • Lisa: "I thought I told you to go to bed!"
       Bart: "Yeah right, Bread. You said, "Go to Bread"."
   • The scenes with Maggie after she eats coffee and ice cream are funny.
   • Ralph's line "I dressed myself."
   • Homer's line "Give me the drugs, Lisa."
   • Dr. Hibbert's line "My diagnosis? Bad babysitting!"
   • Depending on your view, Bart's brattiness can be somewhat funny at times, especially when Lisa tells Bart to stop acting like a baby and then he pretends to be one.
   • The two-story outhouse is one of the best jokes in the series.
   • Comic Book Guy's line "Loneliness and cheeseburgers are a dangerous mix"
3. Mostly Half-Good Ending: While Lisa got exposed to "bad babysitting", she still got to do the babysitting job. And while Bart got away with the bad stuff he did, he at least apologized to Lisa in the end.
4. The subplot of Marge and Homer attending the Springfield Squidport was good, there were plenty of funny moments in the subplot such as the part where Homer gets stuck in the fountain.
5. Surprisingly enough, Lisa is likable here since all she does is try to prevent Bart from doing bad things, which is good since she became unlikable after season 7.

Reception

The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, but it also got mixed reviews from fans of The Simpsons, some fans enjoyed it, while others didn't like the episode because of Bart's bratty behavior and the fact that Lisa was tortured throughout the entire episode.

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