The Simpsons Season 7 Episode 5: Lisa the Vegetarian

In this episode, The Simpson family visits a petting zoo, where Lisa pets a lamb and loves it a lot. That night, Marge serves lamb chops for dinner, but Lisa is troubled of eating a lamb, and announces that she will no longer eat meat. Bart and her father Homer mock her relentlessly. At school, when Lisa requests a vegetarian option to the cafeteria food, Principal Skinner labels her an "agitator". The students are then forced to watch a Meat Council film, starring Troy McClure, which criticizes vegetarianism. Lisa does not like the film, but her classmates tease her.

At home, Homer invites everyone to a barbecue, complete with roast pig. On the day of the barbecue, Lisa makes tomato soup for all the guests as an alternative to meat, but they laugh in her face. Hurt, she climbs aboard a riding mower and drives away with the roast pig. Homer and Bart chase her, but she pushes the pig off a slope and they are too late. The pig rolls through bushes, into a river, and the pig gets too far away from them.

Homer scolds Lisa for ruining his party, and she rebukes him for serving a meat-based dish. She leaves the house. Lisa soon decides that she can no longer fight the pressure to eat meat, prompting her to grab a hot dog (costing 12 cents) from the grill at the Kwik-E-Mart and she takes a bite. However, Apu, a vegan, reveals that she has eaten a tofu dog. 

Apu takes Lisa through a secret passageway to the Kwik-E-Mart roof, where they meet Paul and Linda McCartney. The McCartneys tell Lisa that they are old friends of Apu from Paul's days in India, and discuss their interest in animal rights. After a discussion, Lisa is committed once more to vegetarianism, but she realizes that she should tolerate those who disagree with her views. Lisa begins to return home and finds Homer frantically searching for her. She apologizes to Homer, he forgives her and offers her a "veggie back" ride home.

My thoughts:

How many times I have watched it: Twice.

Chalkboard Gag: The boy's room is not a water park. That's funny. (B)

Couch Gag: Robotic paint guns color the Simpson family. The transformation from grey to full color was great. (A)

My thoughts: I didn't like Lisa this episode. Her taking the pig out of the backyard ans yelling that she will leave the family was so uncharacteristic. She can get mad, but this was a whole new level of mad throughout the episode. However, the jokes were funny and kept coming. The "You don't win friends with salad" was great, and the chase scene for the pig was great, and Mr. Burns' cameo was funny. 

I enjoyed Homer this episode. From his mini sub-plot with his barbecue party and funny invitation card, to him talking to Ned Flanders and accidentally inviting him to his party. And finally telling Lisa to go to her room even though she is actually going to her room.

I think the biggest problem with this episode was how long some of the scenes were. The Storytime village was OK (2 min), but the Troy McClure movie was WAY too long (3 min). Also, The McCartneys were cheesy and pointless to be in the show. That's also why the end was sort of rushed, as the reunite of Homer and Lisa was short.

Overall, the episode had good laughs but the long scenes were boring. Troy McClure was boring in the movie IMO. Not the best episode, but maybe just because Lisa was a bitch? Haha.

My Grade: B-, if Lisa was nicer, maybe a B.