Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright) looking upset surrounded by cops in The SimpsonsImage via FOX
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Lloyd Farley
Published 8 minutes ago
Lloyd 'Happy Trails' Farley: the man, the myth, the legend. What can be said about this amazing - and humble - man that hasn't been said before? Or, more accurately, what can be said in public? Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lloyd is a master of puns and a humorist, who has authored one pun book to date - Pun and Grimeish Mint - and is working on a second. His time with Collider has allowed Lloyd's passion for writing to explode, with nearly 1,000 articles to his name that have been published on the site, with his favorite articles being the ones that allow for his sense of humor to shine. Lloyd also holds fast to the belief that all of life's problems can be answered by The Simpsons, Star Wars, and/or The Lion King. You can read more about Lloyd on his website, or follow his Facebook page and join the Llama Llegion. Happy trails!
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Being a guest star on The Simpsons is a badge of honor for any celebrity, a rite of passage, like The Muppet Show before it, that proves that you've made it. But for a movie director, the highest honor goes to episodes that parody your own work, and that list is much smaller than you'd think. Smaller still is the list of episodes where the parody isn't in one of The Simpsons' famed "Treehouse of Horror" segments, but takes up the entirety of the storyline.
Season 27's "Barthood" is a direct parody of Richard Linklater's Boyhood; "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" in Season 3 pays homage to Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; and "You Only Move Twice" from Season 8 pokes fun at the entirety of the James Bond franchise. Hollywood heavyweights like Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock have also been the targets of parody, in Season 5's "Cape Feare" and Season 6's "Bart of Darkness," respectively. Add to that list director M. Night Shyamalan, whose 2024 movie Trap gets The Simpsons treatment in Season 37's "The Day of the Jack-Up."
'The Simpsons' "The Day of the Jack-Up" Sets Up a 'Trap' for Bart Simpson
"The Day of the Jack-Up" isn't the first time Shyamalan has been parodied — "Flanders' Ladder" sends up the premise of The Sixth Sense, but is secondary to the main target, Jacob's Ladder, while "Multiplisa-ty" from "Treehouse of Horror XXIX" takes on the premise of 2016's Split — but it is the first time one of his films has been directly parodied, on its own, in a full episode. In the episode, Lisa (Yeardley Smith) desperately wants to see the Kneesock Dolls, a K-pop powerhouse, in concert at the newly built, spherical concert hall The Circulus (itself a brilliant shot at The Sphere in Las Vegas). Only the tickets are sold out immediately upon being released online, not just for that concert but for others as well, including the ABBA tribute "The Garden of Sweden," much to the Flanders' dismay, and are put on resale for greatly exaggerated prices.
The culprit is someone they call the SeatMiser, who is using bots to buy the tickets and resell them, and the FBI profiler (Paget Brewster) on the case surmises that the SeatMiser won't be able to resist attending the concert himself. Turns out she's right, as the SeatMiser is none other than Bart (Nancy Cartwright), who set up the scalping with the use of AI (another satirical poke at how AI is making even devious acts significantly easier) and has been using the money to say "Skinner Sucks" in increasingly large, public displays. They're at the concert thanks to Bart making tickets available for Homer (Dan Castellaneta) at a lower price through Otto (Harry Shearer), only Bart is unaware that the FBI is using the concert as a trap for the SeatMiser.
The FBI Can't Crack Bart Simpson's Phone in 'The Simpsons' Parody of 'Trap'
Bart as the SeatMiser is a direct connection to Josh Hartnett's Cooper Abbott, aka serial killer "the Butcher," in Trap, and from the moment Bart enters the concert hall, the episode becomes a beat-for-beat parody of the film, except for the killings, naturally. (In another clever moment, the FBI profiler states that documentaries and podcasts catch serial killers now, leaving her free to "fight this new, highly irritating breed of semi-crime.") As it plays out in the film, Bart learns from a vendor, Squeaky-Voiced Teen (Castellaneta), about the trap, and steals his ID card to gain to the control room, where he picks up the radio feed of the police on the man — err, boyhunt.
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Posts By Liam Gaughan Mar 2, 2025But Bart only grows increasingly panicked as the FBI closes in on him, thanks to the very astute, unnamed FBI profiler who knows his every move, just as Abbott before him grew panicked as the FBI closes in on him, thanks to a very astute, but named (Dr. Josephine Grant, played by Hayley Mills), FBI profiler. Bart's phone, which he tried to flush away, falls into the hands of the profiler, and as a last-ditch effort to catch the SeatMiser, the phone's face ID recognition is used by the profiler to scan the faces of every Springfield Elementary student in attendance. Bart is the last to leave, and seemingly about to be busted, only the face ID doesn't work. Why?
Well, Bart uses his butt for the recognition feature, which, surprisingly, the profiler did not pick up on, and as he and Lisa walk away, a picture of Bart mooning is on the surface of The Circulus. The episode hews close enough to the film that, for anyone that hasn't seen it, it piques interest in seeing Trap. But if you're a serial killer, perhaps hold off — an FBI profiler might just have access to your Prime Video account.
The Simpsons
Like Follow Followed TV-PG Family Animation Comedy Release Date December 17, 1989 Network FOX Showrunner Al Jean Directors Steven Dean Moore, Mark Kirkland, Rob Oliver, Michael Polcino, Mike B. Anderson, Chris Clements, Wes Archer, Timothy Bailey, Lance Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Matthew Faughnan, Chuck Sheetz, Rich Moore, Jeffrey Lynch, Pete Michels, Susie Dietter, Raymond S. Persi, Carlos Baeza, Dominic Polcino, Lauren MacMullan, Michael Marcantel, Neil Affleck, Swinton O. Scott III, Jennifer Moeller Writers J. Stewart Burns, Michael Price, Brian Kelley, Bill Odenkirk, Dan Vebber, Kevin Curran, Stephanie Gillis, Dan Castellaneta, Deb Lacusta, Billy Kimball, Jessica Conrad, Cesar Mazariegos, Daniel Chun, Jennifer Crittenden, Conan O'Brien, Valentina Garza, Elisabeth Kiernan Averick, Christine Nangle, Broti Gupta, Loni Steele Sosthand, Megan Amram, Bob Kushell, David Isaacs, David Mandel Franchise(s) The SimpsonsCast
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Dan Castellaneta
Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice)
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Julie Kavner
Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice)
The satiric adventures of a working-class family in the misfit city of Springfield.
Genres Family, Animation, Comedy Creator(s) Matt Groening Powered by
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