Lisa on Ice

Lisa takes up Ice Hockey as a means of passing her gym class.

This is an excellent episode with great parody and humour.

Lisa On Ice is a great Bart and Lisa story that has a nice little arc about sibling rivalry and the strength of their bond. One moment is very sweet and if you have children who are close you should appreciate it.

Most of all it uses the behaviour of Homer and others to rip excessively competitive parents to shreds. There's nothing worse than these type of people screaming from the sidelines and this episode captures it well with some ridiculous characterisations.

For me the humour is quite prolific as the punchlines come thick and fast throughout the episode.

For me it's a 9.5/10 but I round upwards.

Lisa is non-athletic but has quickness when it comes to stopping things. She becomes a goalie on Abu's hockey team and is responsible for an undefeated season. In the final game, she faces Bart with whom she has developed an intense rivalry. The whole thing is quite touching.

"Lisa on Ice" remains one of my all time favourite Simpsons episodes. It demonstrates what a brilliantly layered and textured comedy should look like. The overall premise of Bart and Lisa's sibling rivalry, fueled by Homer's escalating push for competition is a winner in itself but what really impressed me about the episode was the density and frequency of so many smart, witty jokes throughout. This typifies vintage Simpsons for me and something I find magical about the show is not matter how many times I have seen an episode I always seem to discover new jokes that I had missed before. Some of my favourites of the episode include Lisa's discovery that Monster Island is actually a peninsula and Homer's unfulfilled request for ketchup for his salad.