The Squirt and the Whale

"The Squirt and the Whale" is the nineteenth episode of the twenty-first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

"The Squirt and the Whale" received positive reviews from critics with IGN naming it and "The Bob Next Door" the best episodes of the season.

When Homer is outraged by the family's high electricity bill, they attend an alternate energy expo and purchase a wind turbine.

One evening Bart is manually turning the turbine so Lisa can watch House, and when he prays for wind, a severe storm blows through town.

She appeals to her parents for help returning Bluella to the sea, but Marge fears Lisa will be let down because the outcome for beached whales is usually poor.

As night falls, Lisa decides to stay with Bluella and starts reading her excerpts from the poem "The World Below the Brine" from the poetry collection Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

[7] Bart and Lisa play a tennis game on a console called the "Funtendo Zii," a parody of the Nintendo Wii.

She stated, "I thought it was a really well done version of a story we've seen a number of times, where Lisa becomes involved with some sort of improbable cause, finds herself disappointed, and is only brought out of her bad mood when her family rallies around her" but also remarked that the episode "tried too hard to push for a happy ending.

'The Squirt and the Whale' packed more laughs in the first few minutes' Alternative Energy Expo than the entire running time of most recent eps.

"[7] Eric Goldman of IGN described the opening chalkboard gag as "a humorous one, which used self-deprecation to say The Simpsons couldn't fully stand with South Park - yet clearly stating that the producers do indeed support them, by bringing up the issue at all.