Plot
After Bart and Lisa see Krusty do his show at the Mt. Splashmore water park, they consistently irritate and beg Homer about going there. Homer gets annoyed, but reluctantly decides to take them there. The family goes to Mt. Splashmore, where Bart, Lisa and Homer ride H2WHOA!, a crowded water slide. Being overweight, Homer gets lodged in a section of the slide and the park's rescue crew are forced to remove him from the ride with the help of a large crane. Homer is made a fool of on the news for his massive size and realizes that he needs to lose weight because the size of the slide was not admittedly designed to accommodate guests that are overweight or obese.
Homer announces to his family that he will go on a diet and exercise more (with no pork chops, no doughnuts, and no pizza). While Homer is looking for his weights in the attic, Bart stumbles upon several old paintings of Ringo Starr that Marge made as a student in high school, when she had a crush on Starr. Marge tells Lisa that she was scolded by her art teacher for doing those paintings; she also recalls sending a painting to Starr for an "honest opinion", but she never got a response. Lisa suggests that Marge take a painting class at Springfield Community College, which she does. She makes a painting of Homer on the couch in his underwear, which her professor, Lombardo, praises. The painting wins the college art show, thus gaining her fame and the headlines of the newspapers.
Mr. Burns wants Marge to paint his portrait for the Burns Wing of the Springfield Art Museum. She reluctantly agrees, as long as Burns insists that the painting portray him as a beautiful man. While Burns heckles Marge as she does the painting, Homer finds out that he weighs 239 pounds, which is twenty-one pounds less than what it previously was. After Burns insults Homer's weight and children, Marge insists that he leave the house and is ready to quit until Homer encourages Marge to finish the painting: She also gets a reply from Starr, who is decades behind on answering his fanmail, praising her artwork. She finishes the painting, and at the opening of the Burns Wing, she unveils it. The painting depicts a naked, frail, and weak Burns. The people are shocked, until Marge explains that it depicts what Burns actually is: a vulnerable human being which will, one day, be no more. Everyone, even Burns, who is at first outraged but then accepts his new glory, praises Marge's painting and thanks Marge "for not making fun of genitalia," to which Marge replies, "I thought I did."
Read more about this topic: Brush With Greatness
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)