"O Brother, Where Bart Thou?" is the eighth episode of the twenty-first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. Being the last episode to air in the 2000s, it originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 13, 2009. In this episode, Bart goes on a quest to get a baby brother out of jealousy of the sisterly bond Lisa has with Maggie.
The episode, written by Matt Selman and directed by Steven Dean Moore, received positive reviews from critics.
It was viewed in 7.11 million homes in its original airing in the United States.
Plot
The entire Simpson family stays at home during a blizzard. The weather is too wild to play outside and the power goes out, so Bart participates in a pretend fashion show put on by his sisters, Lisa and Maggie. When he notices the bond shared by the two girls, Lisa suggests that he is jealous because he does not have a brother to share a similar bond with. That night, Bart dreams about being in a park (called Bro-Town USA) with the Smothers Brothers, the Marx Brothers, the Blues Brothers, the Smith Brothers, the Wright Brothers, the Mario Brothers, the Mannings (Cooper, Eli and Peyton), and even the Terwiliger brothers, (Sideshow Bob and Cecil). Bart awakens with the realization that he actually wants a brother.
After getting turned down by Homer (who gives a lengthy monologue detailing why he feels daughters are better than sons), Bart consults with his friends at the bus stop. Nelson advises Bart to trick Marge and Homer into having a baby the same way Nelson's mom tried tricking former basketball player Charles Barkley. Bart's first attempt is to make them a romantic dinner, but Marge and Homer are too stuffed to feel amorous. In his second attempt, Bart leaves a kama sutra DVD in his parents' bedroom, but the two end up injuring themselves after emulating the sex positions. Frustrated, he seeks the advice of Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney, who tell him to hide Marge's birth control pills. Bart replaces Marge's birth control pills with Tic Tacs (just as he did with Mrs. Krabappel's in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie") and discards the Tic Tacs container that now has the birth control pills inside, which Nelson finds and eats (giving the bully mood swings due to the estrogen ingestion). Marge catches Bart tampering with her pills and he confesses that he wants a brother. While sympathetic to her son, Marge explains that she and Homer are fine with just three kids—she also notes that even if she and Homer do ever end up having a fourth child, the baby very well could end up being another girl instead of boy, resulting in Bart having three sisters. Bart goes to a local orphanage and tries adopting a child, but is ultimately turned away for being too young. However, a young boy named Charlie follows Bart home and Bart takes him in as his younger brother.
Bart and Charlie do brotherly things together, including playing pranks on Principal Skinner and hanging out at the Kwik-E-Mart. When Lisa insists that Charlie be returned to the orphanage, Bart disregards her and takes Charlie to see a horror movie titled Sever V. The movie terrifies Charlie, which makes Bart realize that being an older brother requires responsibility. On their way back from the movie, Chief Wiggum tries to apprehend Charlie, but the two boys escape and hide in a snowbank. Back in the snowbank, Lisa pleads with Bart to do the right thing and let Charlie be legally adopted by another family. When the children are sealed in by a snowplow (by Barney riding on his Plow King truck), Bart and Charlie urinate on the snow to melt it and open an escape tunnel, much to Lisa's disgust. After taking Charlie back to the orphanage, Homer and Bart come to visit Charlie, but they find out that Charlie is now adopted by a family with six daughters, and, much to Charlie's dismay, all six of his new sisters treat him like their personal fashion doll. To cheer Bart up, Homer takes him to see Sever V.
Production
The Smothers Brothers (Tom and Dick), Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Cooper Manning and Huell Howser all guest starred as themselves in this episode.