In the episode, Marge — realizing her excessive nagging spoils the family's fun — seeks help from self-help guru Brad Goodman.
After the inaugural "Do What You Feel Festival" ends in calamity and a riot as a result, the town decides to stop acting like Bart.
Actor Albert Brooks guest stars in the episode as Brad Goodman, a self-help guru modelled after John Bradshaw.
It immediately goes awry because maintenance workers "didn't feel like" properly erecting the stage for Brown's band or installing amusement rides.
[2] Meyer's inspiration for the episode came from the fact that he was going through therapy at the time and he thought it would be a good idea "to send up these self-help gurus".
It was Brooks' third appearance on the show after playing Jacques in "Life on the Fast Lane" and Cowboy Bob in "The Call of the Simpsons".
He would later guest star as Hank Scorpio in "You Only Move Twice", Tab Spangler in "The Heartbroke Kid", and Russ Cargill in The Simpsons Movie.
[4] Goodman was based on the American self-help author John Bradshaw,[1] who popularized such psychological ideas as the "wounded inner child" and the dysfunctional family.
"[6] In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Brown's performance as "hilariously over-the-top" and uses it as an example of how the early seasons of the show would include celebrity cameos and not point out the "enormity of their fame".
[8] The sequence of Homer trying to push the trampoline off of a cliff is a reference to the Chuck Jones-directed Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner Looney Tunes cartoons.
"[11] Turner described the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner homage as "one of the show's most overt and inspired tributes to the Warner cartoons.
"[12] Today's Patrick Enwright listed the episode as his ninth favorite in the show in 2007, saying it "brilliantly skewers new-agey self-help gurus" and adding that "it's also noteworthy for clever pop-cultural references.
"[13] The authors of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, described it as "A very bizarre episode in which everyone just has a good time.
"[1] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson wrote: "A certified classic, 'Child' mocks the self-help field and makes a good point along the way.
He adds that the episode "is also incredibly insightful about the ways rebellion gets co-opted by society, forcing the rebellious to question themselves and the essence of their identity."