"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" is the eleventh episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on January 17, 1999. When Homer, Barney, Lenny, and Carl drunkenly vandalize Springfield Elementary School, it is blamed on the children of Springfield, prompting Chief Wiggum to impose a curfew. The children respond by setting up a pirate radio show in which they reveal the embarrassing secrets of Springfield's adults. The episode was written by Larry Doyle and directed by Mark Ervin. The name of the baseball announcer, Denis Conroy, was used because that is the name of writer Larry Doyle's uncle.

Cultural references

  • The episode's title is a reference to the movie Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken.
  • The movie The Bloodening is a parody of the 1960 film Village of the Damned.
  • The review Marge reads of Talk to the Hand – "The writing snaps, crackles and pops" – was how Variety reviewed the sitcom Just Shoot Me! when it first aired in 1997.
  • The set of "Don't Go There" is similar to Central Perk on Friends.
  • The musical argument between kids, adults and seniors is a parody of the song "Kids" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

In his review of The Simpsons tenth season, James Plath of Dvdtown.com noted "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" as "pretty decent".

Peter Brown of If regards "Lard of the Dance", "Marge Simpson in: 'Screaming Yellow Honkers', "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", and "Homer Simpson in: 'Kidney Trouble' as "some of the best episodes of the season".

The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote that the episode was "a curiously unmemorable episode with a good chunk in the middle. Neither the opening with The Isotopes nor the finale with the rather dire song help this one at all, and frankly, if it wasn't for the superb parody of Village of the Damned, and the kids' revenge by revealing their family's secrets, it'd sink without trace."

In 2007, Simon Crerar of The Times listed Lauper's performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show.

References

it:Episodi de I Simpson (decima stagione)#Schermaglie fra generazioni

fi:Simpsonit (10. tuotantokausi)#Sottajengi (Wild Barts Can't Be Broken)