"Beware My Cheating Bart" is the eighteenth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series '' The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 15, 2012. The title refers to the song " Be Still My Beating Heart" by

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

Plot

During a day out in the mall, Homer decides to dump

Milhouse Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a recurring character in the Fox animated television series ''The Simpsons'' voiced by Pamela Hayden and created by Matt Groening. Milhouse is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class ...

and Bart at a children's movie so he can eat at the

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

. The boys run into the bullies (who are there to see an R-rated remake of a Hong Kong horror film called "Crawlspace") and Bart is forced to chaperone Jimbo Jones' girlfriend Shauna while she sees a Jennifer Aniston movie. Both of them leave shortly after seeing the only part of the movie that appeals to Shauna (the man's ass) and they hang out in the mall. Bart covers for Shauna when she shoplifts and when they escape from an incompetent mall cop, Shauna says that Bart is pretty cool and shows her appreciation by flashing her breasts in front of him, leaving him both traumatized and smitten with her. Both decide to enter a romantic relationship behind Jimbo's back, but he figures out what's going on soon afterwards. Both attempt to hide from a vengeful Jimbo at Comic Book Guy's store, while the bully decides to stake out Bart's home with help from an oblivious Marge, leaving Bart to come home and face Jimbo's wrath. Shauna breaks up with both of them after some good advice from Lisa, and Bart receives his punishment (being held upside down from his treehouse to have the "fear of God put into him") from Jimbo. Meanwhile, Homer is persuaded to buy a state-of-the-art treadmill from a crafty salesman. When Lisa shows Homer that he can access television shows wirelessly, he takes advantage of the machine and develops an obsession with watching an old television show called '' Stranded'', instead of working out. Eventually Marge, in a fit of rage, gives away all the spoilers of the episodes Homer has not watched yet. He is initially furious at Marge and hints at their marriage failing, but a romantic evening planned by her resolves matters.

Reception

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 15, 2012. It was watched by approximately 4.864 million people during this broadcast. Rowan Kaiser of '' The A.V. Club'' gave the episode a C+, praising the couch gag "in an episode that was anything but memorable otherwise".

Chalkboard gag

Different chalkboard gags appeared for different airings of this episode. The original U.S. broadcast version was "The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours", a response to reactions to a Matt Groening interview in which he revealed that the name of

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

was inspired by Springfield, Oregon, which was widely misinterpreted as Groening revealing that ''The Simpsons''

was located in Oregon. On Disney+, the chalkboard gag reads "Teacher does not have to pay an ugly tax".

References

External links

*
"Beware My Cheating Bart"
at theSimpsons.com {{The Simpsons episodes, 23 The Simpsons (season 23) episodes 2012 American television episodes