Sunday night’s episode of “The Simpsons” got quite political, even for its standards.
In the show, liberal lioness Lisa Simpson runs for second-grade class rep against a young Republican star, Isabel Gutierrez, voiced by actress Eva Longoria. The local Republicans identify Isabel as a potential party savior and plot to promote her early in her career, before Texas turns blue and her figure gets out of shape.
“We must reach her and groom her before she fattens up like Chris Christie,” Rainier Wolfcastle, a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, says at a private meeting of the Springfield Republican Party. “He thinks GOP stands for ‘gravy on pancakes.'”
The party club boosts Isabel by attaching a “Vote Isabel!” banner to the school bus, writing “Step up for Isabel!” on the school steps, and flying a “Viva Isabel!” flag over the school grounds. When confronted by Lisa about the materials, Isabel says there’s nothing she can do about the outside interference because “the Supreme Court says spending money is free speech.”
In response, Lisa seeks the advice of brother Bart and bakes brownies to entice the voters, draping an Obama-like “YES WE PAN — OF BROWNIES” poster over the food table; and obtains opposition research on Isabel that shows her bicycling with the aid of training wheels and flying off the handles. Lisa soon rejects those tactics, however, and pursues a more positive campaign — one that she ultimately loses.
But flash forward to the end of the show and the year 2056, and she gets a rematch with Isabel in the presidential election. The debate moderator: Anderson Cooper.
Check out a clip from the show below, and click here for the full episode.
(h/t Paul Bedard)
