| "Lisa Gets an "A""
Lisa receives the answers to the test.
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| Episode Information
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"Lisa Gets an "A"" is the seventh episode of season 10. It originally aired on November 22, 1998. The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Bob Anderson.
Synopsis
In discovering the joy of video gaming, Lisa neglects to study for her upcoming test, which she later relents to cheating upon in order to pass. But when the resulting grade raises the school's state average and qualifies it for financial aid, she decides to keep the secret for the good of the school. Meanwhile, Homer raises a baby lobster to beat the high store prices of adults.
Plot
After yet another long Sunday morning at church,
Homer takes the family to a local store for Sunday brunch, by eating the free samples. After being stuffed into a freezer, by Homer who wants some ice cream,
Lisa comes down with a bad cold and is forced to stay home from school. In order to keep her mind off of school,
Marge encourages Lisa to play one of Bart's video games. Lisa becomes addicted to playing the game
Dash Dingo. She claims to still be sick for many more days to play video games... until Marge stops believing her. When Lisa returns to school
Miss Hoover has her take a test on
The Wind in the Willows, a book she was supposed to have read while she was sick. Lisa panics and excuses herself to go get a drink. While in the hallway she runs into
Bart who refers her to the boy's restroom. There they meet
Nelson who is selling test answers.
Lisa completes the tests with Nelson's answers and gets an A+++. Later she is summoned to Skinner's office. He tells her that her A+++ increased to the school's GPA allowing the school to receive an assistance grant. Lisa admits to Skinner that she cheated. Both he and Chalmers agree that Lisa's cheating should be kept quiet so that they can still get the grant money. At the ceremony Lisa comes up to the stage and confesses to cheating. The comptroller decides to give the school the money anyway to reward Lisa's honesty. All the family, except for Bart, leave the auditorium. It is then revealed that the ceremony was fake and the comptroller was really
Otto wearing a mask. The real ceremony takes place without Lisa's knowledge and the
real comptroller gives the school their grant money.
Meanwhile, Homer buys a small live lobster at the grocery store and fattens him up with plans to feed him to the entire family. When it's time to eat him, Homer has a change of heart and keeps the lobster as a pet naming him Mr. Pinchy. Homer unwittingly gives Mr. Pinchy a hot bath only to have boiled him to death. Homer mourns Mr. Pinchy's death by eating the lobster by himself, saying that Pinchy "would've wanted it this way", and sobbing all the while.
Reception
"Lisa Gets an 'A'" was watched by approximately 8 million viewers.[1]
The episode garnered scrutiny from The Catholic League, an American Catholic anti-defamation and civil rights organization, because of the scene wherein the Simpsons are on their way home from church when Bart says "I'm starving. Mom, can we go Catholic so we can get Communion wafers and booze?" Marge replies "No, no one is going Catholic. Three children is enough, thank you."[2]
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