(originally aired May seven, 2000)
Some other episode where I find myself with non much to say… non and so bad in the fashion that it'southward totally banal and non impacting in the slightest, just that I don't have any specific commentary to dole out. Inspired by a ridiculous (and very amusing) Latin dance motion picture, Lisa decides she wants to take upwardly dancing, just ultimately takes upward tap under the tuteledge of famed child actor Lilliputian Vicki. Vicki is a pretty good character, playing off of Shirley Temple basically, with a sort of bitter, spiteful streak to her. Like most great adults in Springfield, she isn't shy or hesitant well-nigh belittling young children. She works for what she is, and gets her off-white share of laughs ("Turn that pout upside downwardly! …that's a grinning, not an upside down frown. Work on that likewise!") In that location are a couple other isolated moments of greatness, coming from the likes of Principal Wiggum and Professor Frink, just they seem to be few and far between.

This isn't actually a bad episode, only there's definitely non much hither. It feels empty; Lisa wants to pursue dancing similar she saw in the film, but ends up in tap basically as a event of a joke. So when she's no skillful at it, there's no real desire for her to continue since she didn't want to do information technology in the first place. That's why they needed to shoehorn the completely out-of-left-field notion that she didn't want to let her parents downward by giving up, when they shower her with praise and call her their "Broadway infant" apropos of nothing. They should have either diameter that in earlier in the show, or gave her another reason not to quit. I could be mistaken, but a after episode had Lisa take up ballet when her female parent failed at it, so it had an bending of Marge living through her kid. I'm sure it was awful, but fifty-fifty that makes more sense than this does.

And at present for our big dumb catastrophe. We can't even take a simple Lisa show without resulting in an over-the-top climax. Professor Frink notices Lisa' plight and figures he tin help; he places a sensor into Lisa'southward shoes that will move in reaction to sound, thus she will be able to tap in time with the rest of her class. Now, this… doesn't make sense. Let'south say that it could work that if Lisa manages to command her own upper trunk while her feet move of their ain accord. But it just becomes more and more of a stretch when she starts doing splits, slides and back flips when Piddling Vicki tries to outdo her in the performance, then starts going admittedly mental when the audience applauds wildly. This catastrophe just feels way too out of place in what should take been a smaller, more intimate show. So aye, it'due south a pretty average episode slightly tarnished past a ludicrous catastrophe. Oh, there'southward also that B-plot of Bart and Milhouse in the mall, but I got nothing to say on that. Agreeable at parts, but wholly disposable. You're telling me there'south not 1 camera in that whole mall that wouldn't accept picked up the kids' antics? Merely in Springfield…

Tidbits and Quotes
– I actually like the Cyborganizer ("I can streamline whatsoever procedure, except this thing you telephone call honey,") and Homer's bemoaning of how the network retooled it and so that he'south a unmarried father.
– Homer getting center surgery is just some other alibi to requite Castellaneta's vocal chords a work out. And to accept a truly disgusting shot of his optics crusting over. [shudder]
– Odd that this season we've had the only other two characters Yeardley Smith has played, and since her voice is so distinct, they're both parallels of Lisa. Here, it's Lisabella, the mousy librarian turned sexy dance star in Tango De La Muerte. Information technology's full of lots of nifty bits and lines ("There is merely one dance that will beat them: the Tango de la Muerte." "Simply one man was crazy enough to dance that trip the light fantastic toe, and he is expressionless! "My twin brother, Freduardo. But where he died, I shall alive… in his apartment.")
– Great sign gag with the Little Vicki dance schoolhouse, every bit the motorized pinky into the cheek continues to bore into the metal sign.
– Vicki's "tappa-tappa-tappa" schtick starts to abound a fleck thin, merely it's saved by this line ("Back when I was your age, I had forty three movies under my belt, and I had to practise information technology without tappa-tappa-tappa! I would've killed for tappa-tappa-tappa!")
– For some reason, Allison and Alex Whitney are in the trip the light fantastic toe form. More than of them just shoving characters wherever they like.
– Now, Bart and Milhouse skip out going to camp to hide out at the mall. Then later the mall owner mentions that it'due south President'southward Twenty-four hours weekend. …okay. Couldn't they have made information technology Memorial Twenty-four hour period weekend? That would arrive a bit closer.
– Information technology's silly and obvious, but I love the flake with Wiggum and the ACME anvil ("Gosh, that cheese looks skillful. Recollect I could grab it earlier that anvil hits?" "I don't know, Main. It's a million to i." "I like those odds!")
– The mall story actually has no finish. They bring in a mount lion for some reason to catch a rat, and so Bart and Milhouse dissuade it with some yarn. A string hangs from the lion'due south mouth, and Lou assumes information technology'southward the rat'southward tail, and that's the finish. …okay?
– Love the tearing nature of "dimpling" and how cheerful Vicki is about enforcing it on children ("Now this may hurt a lot! What am I maxim, 'may'?")
– Me and my friends have quoted "Why walk when we tin trip the light fantastic toe!" many times over, it'due south simply a wonderfully dumb line for this impaired play. Homer is enthralled though ("Where's Lisa?" "Shhh! This plot is hard enough to follow as it is.")
– Homer's been pretty absent hither later on the eye surgery matter, so we gotta cram in some Jerkass-ness at the end. First in him trampling over Frink's attempts to cheer Lisa up, then nosotros close on more than Homer screaming after he grabs Frink's weasel weapon. …that sounded unintentionally sexual, I apologize.