Season

12

Production Code

CABF12

Episode Number

0

Airdate

25 February 2001

Writer

Tim Long

Director

Steven Dean Moore

Executive Producer

Mike Scully

Editor

Jimmy Heenan

Plot By paralleling Rosie Ruiz's cheating in the 1980 Boston Marathon, Bart cheats in the Springfield's equivalent. When Bart's dishonesty is quickly discovered, he finds himself in hot water with fellow competitors and spectators, so he accepts a stranger's offer to help him escape. The stranger reveals that his identity is L.T. Smash. L.T. offers Bart a career as a member of a boy band known as "The Party Posse". Bart accepts, and becomes Party Posse's 4th member, joining Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum and Milhouse Van Houten. The Party Posse quickly ascend to stardom, albeit using complex voice enhancers built by NASA. No one is aware of the voice enhancer's use, and as such Party Posse's success depends on the voice enhancer.

The band releases a single titled "Drop da Bomb!", which contains the suspicious lyric "YVAN EHT NIOJ". Lisa's growing suspicion around The Party Posse eventually results in her discovering the line is a subliminal recruiting message to join the Navy, as Yvan Eht Nioj is Join the Navy written backwards. Lisa also discovers that L.T. Smash is, in reality, Lieutenant Smash ("LT" being the abbreviation for the Navy rank of Lieutenant). He says he is working to recruit people for the United States Navy.

Lisa points out her discoveries to Homer and Marge, but they dismiss her accusations as jealousy to Bart. The events come to a head when The Party Posse perform at a concert on an aircraft carrier, which only increases Lisa's suspicion towards the band. During the first song (which also contains subliminal messages), L.T. learns from his superior officer that MAD Magazine's next issue will lampoon The Party Posse, calling them The Potty Posse and thus the band will not have any recruiting power. L.T.'s superior officer terminates "Project Boy Band" by shutting off the band's voice enhancer, exposing the group's mediocre voices. L.T. becomes increasingly aggravated about his Superior Officers' actions, and threatens to send the carrier out to sea. When L.T.'s completes his threat, a terrified audience evacuate the carrier. The only people left on the ship are The Party Posse and Homer (Homer was unfortunately in the toilet at the time). L.T. sends the ship to New York City in an attempt to destroy the MAD skyscraper. Despite 'N Sync's attempt to stop L.T., he destroys the MAD building with the ship's missiles, but L.T.'s actions appear to only reinvigorate the MAD workers. After L.T.'s criminal actions, he is arrested and the potential of the fraudulent Party Posse remains unfulfilled.