Lisa the Tree Hugger

"Lisa the Tree Hugger"
The Simpsons episode
File:Cabf01.jpg
Episode no.	Season 12
Directed by	Steven Dean Moore
Written by	Matt Selman
Original air dates	November 19, 2000
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"I am not the acting President."
Couch gag	Maggie is on the couch. The rest of the Simpsons waddle in dressed as The Teletubbies and Maggie applauds with delight.

"Lisa the Treehugger" is the fourth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons, which was originally aired on November 19, 2000. It was written by Matt Selman and directed by Steven Dean Moore.

Plot

Needing money after seeing a commercial for a new video game console, Bart is forced to get a job as a menu boy for a Thai restaurant named You Thai Now. However, the menus he delivers soon litter Springfield, upsetting Lisa over the number of trees cut down to make them.

Later the family go to Krusty Burger only to find a group of people dressed in cow suits protesting on the roof. She meets Jesse Grass (voiced by Joshua Jackson), the hunky and non-violent leader of a radical environmentalist protest group named Dirt First, who claims to be a level five vegan (he refuses to eat anything that casts a shadow). She later joins Dirt First, and after learning that Springfield's oldest redwood tree is about to be cut down by Rich Texan, volunteers to camp in the tree to keep the loggers at bay. However, missing her family, she leaves the tree for a night, and returns in the morning to find the tree fell by lightning.

Not knowing her fate, everyone in Springfield thinks Lisa died in the storm and offers condolences to the family, which Homer and Bart briefly take advantage of. The Rich Texan also decides to turn the forest into a sanctuary in memory of Lisa, but later he changes his mind and offers to build an amusement park, "Lisa Land".

Fortunately, Lisa comes to the site, and protests the park. The log being used as the sign for Lisa Land is cut loose by Jesse and heads for Springfield's business district, destroying the Rich Texan's company, Homer's favourite "Kentucky Fried Panda" and eventually heads out on a cross-country journey out to the sea. Although Jesse lands himself in jail again, he has apparently not stopped his crusade for the environment.

Cultural references

• This episode is an obvious reference to Julia Butterfly Hill, an environmentalist best known for living in a 180-foot-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999.
• This episode could also be a reference to the two Tofino residents who resided in a famous 800 year old Western Red Cedar for 28 days to halt demolition efforts.
• Bart is reading an "Itchy & Veronica" comic book and sighs, "Oh, Betty." This is a reference to Betty and Veronica from Archie Comics.
• The Gamestation 256 is a parody of the Nintendo 64 and the Sony PlayStation, which the Gamestation resembles.
• The environmentalist group's name is a parody of Earth First.
• At a Dirt First meeting, Jesse Grass says "Once you're up there, you can't come down. Not for a Phish concert, not even for Burning Man."
• The song playing during the end credits is "Spybreak!" by Propellerheads, which featured on the soundtrack to The Matrix. The song also plays during Bart's martial arts delivering scene, which parodies the lobby scene from the film.
• The Lisa Log demolishes a restaurant called Kentucky Fried Panda, a portmanteau of sorts combining the names of two well-known fast-food chains, KFC and Panda Express.
• The "level five vegan" line was later referenced in the movie Transamerica by the "Peyote Shaman".
• There is a level in The Simpsons Game named after this episode.
• The song on the end of the episode is a parody of the song This land is your land from Woody Guthrie.

trivia

• When Lisa first meets Jesse, he tells her that in New Orleans they got hosed down with Tabasco.
• The run away log negotiates San Francisco, down Lombard Street where the Transamerica Pyramid can be seen in the background and then into the San Francisco Bay and under the Golden Gate Bridge.
• When Lisa first climbs the giant redwood tree she is treated to a stunning view of Springfield and Shelbyville - and also the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. This would put Springfield firmly in either Missouri or Illinois - except that the Statue of Liberty is also visible in the image. Which is impossible. Not only is the Statue of Liberty over five hundred miles away - far too small to visible from Missouri - the redwood tree in question would need to be about a dozen miles tall for it to even be visible due to the curvature of the Earth. The Eiffel Tower is also in the image, and appears to actually be nearer than the Statue of Liberty.
• A mannequin that looks a lot like Woody Harrelson's animated self from the episode 'Homer to the max' features in the Hemp store destroyed by the run away log. It is also wearing pants made from hemp leaves the same way as the real Woody Harrelson does that episode.

External links

• "Lisa the Tree Hugger episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Lisa the Tree Hugger" at IMDb