Episode no. 344 Written by Matt Selman Production code GABF03 | Directed by Mike B. Anderson Showrunner(s) Al Jean Original air date February 13, 2005 | |
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"Pranksta Rap" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' sixteenth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 13, 2005. It guest stars 50 Cent as himself, and Dana Gould as Barney Fife. Boots Riley of the rap group The Coup provided the score, although he did not write any lyrics.
Contents
Plot
Bart attends a rap concert without Marge and Homer's permission. To avoid them discovering this, he fakes being kidnapped, intending to stay at Kirk Van Houten's apartment until the heat dies down. Chief Wiggum, determined to prove his reputation as a bad cop wrong, deduces Bart's location and arrests Kirk for the "kidnapping", and is subsequently promoted to police commissioner. After seeing how badly Milhouse has been affected by his father's arrest, Bart confesses his hoax to Wiggum, but decides to keep it secret after seeing that Kirk is far better off in prison, due to having both regular meals and the admiration of numerous women as a result of being a convicted felon.
Lisa figures out the truth after discovering a sweater from the rap concert near Bart's treehouse, but upon showing Homer the evidence, he destroys it, having made a deal with Hollywood regarding the rights to Bart's story. Undeterred, Lisa and Principal Skinner travel to the home of hip-hop artist "Alcatraaz", one of the concert's performers, where they find footage of Bart at the concert. Moments later, Homer, Wiggum and Bart show up and try to convince Lisa to abandon her attempts at exposing them, on the basis that no-one has been hurt over the lie. Lisa still wants to expose them regardless, but Homer inadvertently destroys the evidence after accidentally knocking over Alcatraaz's flat-screen TV. Alcatraaz suggests they solve the problem by throwing a pool party, to the delight of everyone but Lisa.
Reception
Andrew Martin of Prefix Mag named 50 Cent his eighth favorite musical guest on The Simpsons out of a list of ten.