Simpsons Did It!: “The Monkey Suit”

We need to consider, perhaps, that Nelson Muntz may be a MASTER OF DISGUISE.

But before that, we need to consider that Lisa wants to go to the Natural History Museum before the summer ends.  Well, any museum, but this one was also Marge’s choice for an exhibit on looms and weaving.  That doesn’t work too well for Homer and Bart, except that before they go inside, a new banner drops down revealing the special exhibit is now on the history of weapons.  That works for the men.

Also working for the men is seeing the Flanderses in the front of the line and Homer cutting ahead as he is wont to go.  Then everyone else in line does the same and has Ned and his boys at the back of the line.  That actually means they don’t get into the weapons exhibit before it closes, so they can see the rest of the museum.  What else is there?  Um, the origin of man as explained through evolution.  Ned wants to know where the Bible’s version of events is, and that turns out to be a single small exhibit labeled as a “myth”.  And the audio tour recorded by guest star Melanie Griffith is just infuriating.

Now, Ned believes he came from God and that’s how it always is and was.  That mostly confuses his impressionable sons who wonder if their mom was a monkey, or what role the stork played, or where baby storks come from, or whether or not storks exist, or even if Rod (or Tod) should be praying to the stuffed stork in the museum because he got confused and thought it was God.

Ned’s next move is to complain to the Lovejoys, and those two realize that though neither care as much as Ned Flanders does, making a big fuss over evolution in the local public school will bring in parishoners.

And, it turns out, Principal Skinner’s auto lease is from a Christian finance group, so he’s easy to blackmail into bringing creationism into schools.  Lisa finds this objectionable of course.  Whole tests where the only answer is “God did it” and videos showing Darwin making out with Satan don’t sit well, so she takes her complaint to the town meeting, and after a persuasive speech where she implores the people to approve only one such lesson on where life came from, almost gets her way when Springfield bans the teaching of evolution in schools.

Will Lisa get arrested for discussing Darwin’s work in secret with the other smart kids (plus Milhouse)?  Are you new to this show?

At court, Lisa is represented by an ACLU attorney from New York City.  That gets her booed.  The town is represented by a white-suited older Southern man voiced by guest star Larry Hagman.  You can probably guess how it works out for Lisa.

As it stands, Marge decides to see what all the fuss is about and reads Darwin’s book.  And it opens up her mind!  She has a plan to help Lisa!

That plan is probably better than Bart’s.  He got what looks like Milhouse in a Lisa costume to take the heat while his sister really fled to Mexico.  But then it turned out it wasn’t Milhouse.

Nope, it turns out it’s really Nelson, MASTER OF DISGUISE.

What’s Marge’s plan?  Well, when Ned was being questioned in court the next day, Marge passed Homer a beer he couldn’t open.  Homer’s savage efforts to open the bottle had Ned jump up and call Homer an ape, and that more or less suggested there was a Missing Link, or at least a Lancelot Link (Secret Chimp), and that means the evolution idea is back in the school.  Lisa, however, makes peace with Ned after the trial by pointing out that teaching creationism in the school is the same as teaching science at church, and Flanders can go along with that idea.  He then offers to take Lisa with him and Rod and Tod to get ice cream.

Only it isn’t Tod (or Rod).  It’s really Nelson Muntz, MASTER OF DISGUISE.