Jazzy and the Pussycats

"Jazzy and the Pussycats" is the second episode of The Simpsons ' eighteenth season, which originally aired September 17, 2006. It was written by Daniel Chun and directed by Steven Dean Moore. The White Stripes guest starred as themselves.

Synopsis
While attending the funeral for Amber, Homer's now dead Vegas wife, Bart gets bored and plays a game of paddleball, which goes awry. As a result, he is forced to see a psychiatrist who suggests Bart get a drum kit. Bart gets a kit and instantly becomes a natural at it. He practices 24/7, and bumps into the White Stripes who are playing a music video in the style of Michel Gondry. Eventually, his drumming drives Homer and Marge mad and Lisa suggests to her parents that she can take Bart to a jazz brunch.

Lisa asks Bart to jazz along with her quintet, which he does. Bart easily overshadows everyone, including Lisa, and a legendary jazz group asks him to play with them, much to Lisa's chagrin.

Bart's drumming is such a success that he's a town icon and made the front cover of two magazines, thus making Lisa very, very jealous. Marge, who doesn't want Lisa to compete against Bart, decides to let her adopt a puppy in order to make her happy. At the animal shelter, Lisa picks the cutest puppy over a very sick dog that would otherwise die. At night, the sick dog comes in a ghost-like form to tell her that his fate is doomed because she chose the other dog over him. Lisa decides to go back and adopt the sick puppy, but after seeing how sick many of them are, she decides to adopt them all in order to save their lives. On her way home, many other animals joined her, including a horde of circus animals. Having nowhere to put them, Lisa puts them in an attic.

After dinner that night, Lisa goes into the attic and finds Bart and his jazz with the animals she rescued. A tiger bites Bart's "drumming arm" causing extensive nerve damage and meaning that he can no longer drum.

In order to raise money for the operation he needs, Bart organizes a benefit concert with his Jazz friends. Meanwhile, Lisa is informed that her animals will be taken to a pound and killed if she cannot find a suitable home for them. In the end, after the benefit concert was a good success, Bart feels empathy for Lisa and decides to use the money to build a home for the animals.

Cultural references

 * The episode's title is a play on the fictitious rock band Josie and the Pussycats.
 * Blue Man Group are seen at the funeral. When one of the players is choking because of Bart's ball, he starts coughing and a lot of balls fall from his mouth, then he turns from blue to yellow (Simpsons' normal skin color).
 * The White Stripes sequence is identical in style to their music video for The Hardest Button to Button directed by Michel Gondry. Jack White and Meg White are also seen wearing the same outfits they were in during "The Hardest Button to Button" music video.
 * The scene where Lisa is accumulating animals while strolling down the street is a nod to the opening credits from Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film Reservoir Dogs.

Music in this episode

 * Songs in this episode:
 * "Killer Joe" (played by the kids at the Jazzy Goodtime's)
 * "Take Five", written by Paul Desmond and originally performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet (played at the Jazzy Goodtime's, featuring Lisa on the saxophone)
 * "The Hardest Button to Button" by The White Stripes (The video is homaged at length)
 * "Big Noise From Winnetka" (played shortly after, featuring Bart on the drums) - This song is also played in an earlier episode when Lisa is listening to the radio.
 * "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection (played while Lisa gathers the animals)
 * "Caravan" originally written by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington and performed by Duke Ellington (played on the benefit concert)

Jazzy and the Pussycats