The Old Man and the Lisa

The Old Man and the Lisa
Episode #: 174
Season #: 8
First Aired: Sunday April 20, 1997

I wouldn't go as far as to say this is my favorite episode but I find the whole ordeal with Mr. Burns to be ironically humorous. It demonstrates how Mr. burns cannot change who he is fundamentally regardless of what situation in life he is in. Mr. Burns, in my view, represents corporate America in all of its lying, cheating and cold hearted worth. This episode contains many topics discussed in class such as irony, satire and even paradoxicalness.

The whole episode is based upon Mr. Burns losing all of his money. It would appear that none of his "yes" men ever told him that his stocks were losing money and he has subsequently lost it all. Nobody cares about his loses or really anything about him or how he may end up, however. It isn't complicated irony but none the less it is ironic that the rich and pompus american businessman lost his fortune due to his inability to hire anyone who may disagree with him. He seemingly takes on an innocent quality once he loses his money and all posesions. Almost as if he lost his malevolance and misanthropy once parted from his power plant, posessions, and money; or rather once he was seperated from his nuclear power plant ( money-grubbing corporation). He has been so pathetically pampered, however, for so long that he cannot perfom simple tasks like chosing between "ketchup" and "catsup" in the supermarket. The satire here is displaying how the rich couldn't survive the real world at its most basic level even in the most dire of situations because, well, everyone does everything for them. Looking like a delusional product of dementia he is taken away to an elderly home, where people are usually placed in this society to be forgotten (lets be serious). The cold hearted and unforgiving billionaire mogul has become a penniless and forgotten nothing left to rot.
Meanwhile, Lisa Simpson has been campaigning for recycling and Burns turns to her for help in order to get back on top; he lacks any ill nature in appearence and seems quite innocent and sincere in wanting to reform and gain back his fortune. Lisa knows what Burns has done in the past and who he has been and doesn't trust this new look of austerity gleaming from his eyes. Being Lisa Simpson, however, she gives in and decides to help Mr. burns and the two begin to recycle whatever they can find. They eventually gain enough money to open a recycling plant that would benefit the two of them as well as have an obvious ripple effect within Springfield.

Now the paradox of Mr. Burns comes into play. While Mr. Burns has been endowed with the righteousness of recycling he is still at the very core himself or rather his evil self. He has tried to do something good by recycling but infact ended up dredging the ocean and collecting everything from whales to clams to make "slurry", which will be fed to farm animals. This is a paradox because Burns even while attempting to do something good has devastated the local hydrosphere and has conducted a monstrous project while making a serious attempt to do good and earn money ( which in itself is a paradox; earning money and doing good). In trying to recycle he was exhibiting a contradictory nature and inevitably turned out to be evil.

The story ends in Lisa turning down a check worth millions that was attained through creating "slurry" after Marge tells Lisa to do what she thinks is the right thing. This gives Homer four simultaneous heart attacks and causes yet another when he wakes up in the hospital and remembers what Lisa did. There could not have been a more perfect ending.

The Simpsons was, is, and will always be an amazing show. It has broken ground on countless social issues and has kept humor as well as entertainment at the forefront. Keep in mind nothing in life will ever stop changing and the fact that the Simpsons kept true to form for years on end is pretty damn good. New episodes are exactly that and lets not take them out of context and try to have them reach an impossible goal of being placed on the same pedastool as previous episodes. Take the Simpsons for what they are. Funny.