This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons Season 33 Episode 15
The Simpsons season 33 episode 15, “Bart the Cool Kid” takes on schoolyard peer pressure and conspicuous consumption, best exemplified by footwear fads. Everyone can identify with the public humiliation of walking hallways in shitty sneakers.
“You can’t record me, I’m recording you.” This is the second week in row The Simpsons has plumbed viral videos for content. Ralphie, who first sets the standard for the style, comes to school in genuine, “SLIPREME” sneakers. He is the youngest, and least cool, at Springfield Elementary, which hints at the generational divides to come.
The hip section of Springfield had some very amusingly named stores, like Sarcastic Golf Wear, and the Hasidic surf-wear store, Kosher Pacific, but the store that sells a single action figure is probably the most vindictively indicative of the common elitism of Millennial mass consumption.
More could have been made of Bart teaching Orion how to skate, or more specifically, how things aren’t mastered on a first try. It was refreshing to see the Orion fall and bleed, and his yell of “let’s go again” made it almost feel authentic, but the biggest influencer in Springfield comes across as bland. His aura is less indigo, even when he is “redefining his generation’s notions of relaxation.”
As Lisa points out, cool is arbitrary and constantly changing. The Simpsons used to be cool but changes in awkward growth spurts. The generational standoff deserves more than a speech from Marge and a trip to the Aviation Museum, but the last segment pushes “Bart the Cool Kid” up a half star. It is completely out of left field, both as an added twist and as a concept in itself. It is funny, and ties all the little bits together like the laces on a really cool sneaker.
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