Lisa als Vegetarierin
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"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. This episode establishes Lisa's status as a vegetarian, an idea that was first hinted in the episode "Lisa's Wedding".
Synopsis
Grampa and the Simpsons visit the at Storytown Village, which is a boring amusement park for 1-7 1/2 year olds. (Marge had previously said that the trip would be fun for everyone, including Lisa who is eight.) They also visit the park's petting zoo and are immediately enraptured as they see one little lamb after another, each one more absurdly adorable than the one before it. That night, Marge serves lamb for dinner, and Lisa cannot eat it. She keeps hearing the bleating voice of the lambs at the petting zoo--"Li-i-i-sa, I thought you lo-o-o-ved me-e-eee!" Lisa pushes her plate away, crying, "I can't eat this. I can't eat a poor little lamb!" Naturally Homer notes the distinction between lamb, and a lamb. Her mother, trying to help, offers up rump roast, chicken breast, and hot dogs instead, but Lisa suddenly makes the connection between these dishes and their living counterparts. "No I can't! I can't eat any of them!"
At school, her newfound vegetarianism becomes a problem when she is almost forced to dissect a live worm whom she imagines pleading, "Li-i-isa, what did I ever do to you-u-u-u?" She's a little confused ("Why does it talk like a lamb?") but no less committed to her cause, and so she refuses to dissect it. At lunch, the only vegetarian option is a hot dog bun, which Lunchlady Doris proclaims "rich in bunly goodness." (In the Spanish dubbed version, Doris claims it's "rich in wheat and mustard"). Her caustic questioning of the exact point when Doris lost her enthusiasm for her job results in the second secret 'independent thought alarm' she's triggered that day, prompting Principal Skinner to have all colored chalk removed from the classrooms, and to show the students a propaganda film depicting why meat-eating is a good thing (with the rather dubious belief that cows consider eating humans). At home her newfound vegetarian stance is not tolerated or understood very well either, with Homer and Bart both mocking her for rejecting meat. Homer and Bart even starts a dance line "You don't win friends with salad" when Lisa asks him to serve something else at his upcoming barbecue instead of traditional meat.
Meanwhile, Homer hosts his barbecue complete with roast pig. Lisa - who is becoming increasingly self-righteous regarding her vegetarianism - brings gazpacho but is laughed out of the yard and into her room, where she sulks on her bed and resents the partygoers for rubbing their carnivorous habits "in [her] face." Just then, a hamburger haphazardly flipped by Homer flies through her window and lands on her face.
Enraged, Lisa climbs aboard a riding mower, and drives away with the roast pig in tow. Homer and Bart chase after her, but she pushes the pig off a slope and they're too late. The pig runs through bushes, into the river, and is shot into the air by a hydroelectic dam's suction.
Meanwhile, Mr. Burns is about to sign a million-dollar check for a donation to a local charity. He says that he will sign it when pigs fly. Just then, the roast pig flies in view, and Burns is utterly shocked. But he says he still won't donate the money.
Back at home, Lisa and Homer are too angry to speak to one another. They fight and she leaves the house. While walking, she is mocked by classmates and hit with a barrage of meat-related advertisements (Sherri and Terri were saying, "Look at Mrs. Potato Head! She has a head made out of lettuce.", then giggles). And so the pressures to conform to an omnivorous society are too great, prompting her to grab a hot dog off of the grill at the Kwik-E-Mart, take a bite, and shout, "There! Is everybody happy now?"
However, Apu - himself a vegan - tells her that she has, in fact, eaten a tofu dog (and only thrice the fat of a regular hot dog) and takes her through a secret passageway to the Kwik-E-Mart roof to meet guest stars Paul and Linda McCartney. One brief heart-to-heart later, Lisa is committed once more to vegetarianism. She also learns an important lesson from Apu: "I learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can influence people without badgering them always."
Thus inspired, she returns home to make up with her father, and finds him in the street shouting her name and espousing his fear of everyone knowing him to be a bad father. Lisa apologizes to Homer, admitting she had no right to ruin his barbecue; he forgives her and offers her "a piggyback--I mean, a veggieback ride."
Trivia
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- One of Paul McCartney's stipulations for doing the guest spot was that Lisa's conversion to vegetarianism be a permanent one. Thus, it is an instance of continuity in the Simpsons universe that has been strictly held to.
- The clip of Kent Brockman taking a bite out of a chicken in Lisa's imagination was used in the next episode "Treehouse of Horror VI".
Vorlage:ListGenBot-SourceEnd Apu's garden was also seen in Simpsons Hit and Run when you went on the roof of the Kwik-e-Mart.
Cultural references
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- The pig that Homer roasts and blasts into the air, flying over the nuclear power plant, is a direct reference to the Pink Floyd's Animals album cover (see also Pink Floyd pigs).
- The version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" that plays over the end credits is an original mix by the Simpsons staff that when played backwards contains snippets of Paul McCartney reciting a recipe for lentil soup – a throwback to an earlier gag. One of the backwards snippets says "Oh, and by the way, I'm alive." - a reference to the Paul is Dead theory. The backwards speech in the track is also a reference to this theory. The recited recipe can be found on the "Extras" section on Disc 1 of the seventh season DVD box set.
- "I Spit On Your Grave", a notorious slasher film, is seen list at the billboard for the drive-in cinema.
- Paul McCartney asks,"She's leaving home?" referencing The song of the same title from The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- When Lisa asks Paul "Where is Linda?", Linda appears and says "I'm right here, whenever we're in Springfield, we like to spend time in Apu's garden in the shade!" referencing the Beatles song "Octopus' Garden" from the album Abbey Road.
