Blame It on Lisa

Written by Bob Bendetson and directed by Steven Dean Moore, "Blame It on Lisa" features several references to popular culture, including a parody of the Brazilian children's television host Xuxa and an allusion to the film A Trip to the Moon.

"Blame It on Lisa" attracted controversy in Brazil because of its inclusion of clichés and stereotypes, including frequent depictions of crime, slums and rat infestations, as well as cultural inaccuracies.

After the phone company cuts off the family's service for non-payment and Homer repeatedly injures himself trying to restore it, Lisa admits that she made the call in order to stay in touch with Ronaldo, an orphan boy she has been sponsoring.

When Lisa plays a videotaped message from Ronaldo, telling her that he used her money to buy a pair of dancing shoes, Homer, Marge, and Bart decide to fly to Brazil with her and find him.

When they arrive at a meeting point arranged by the kidnappers—on adjacent aerial lift cars above Sugarloaf Mountain—they find that Homer has developed Stockholm syndrome and made a scrapbook to remember his kidnapping.

Throughout the series, they have visited Antarctica, Aruba, Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, France, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, South Korea, Spain, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.

[4][5][6] Their visit to Brazil in "Blame It on Lisa" was later referenced in the eighteenth-season episode "The Wife Aquatic" (2007), in which the family makes a trip to an island called Barnacle Bay that they discover has been devastated by overfishing.

[2] According to showrunner Al Jean, the staff members of The Simpsons asked American golfer Tiger Woods to do a guest appearance in this cartoon, but they were turned down.

[9] In its original broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 2002, "Blame It on Lisa" received a 6.3 Nielsen rating and was seen by approximately eleven million people.

[17][18] According to The Washington Post, "an immediate media frenzy was born" as the episode started receiving coverage in local newspapers and news programs on Brazilian television.

[18] An article published in the Houston Chronicle on April 8, 2002, stated that critics in the country were upset by the inclusion of clichés and stereotypes not related to Brazil, such as Brazilians having Spanish accents and wearing mustaches.

"[21] On April 6, 2002, it was reported by the Brazilian media that Riotur, the tourist board of Rio de Janeiro, was planning on suing Fox for damaging the international image of the city.

[8][22] Riotur stated that Rio de Janeiro was portrayed in "Blame It on Lisa" as having rampant street crime, kidnappings, slums, and a rat infestation,[23] and it was thought that this would discourage foreign visitors from visiting the city.