Whacking Day

[1] The episode revolves around the fictional holiday "Whacking Day", celebrated annually, in which the citizens of Springfield drive snakes into the town square, then fatally club them.

After Bart is expelled from school as punishment for injuring Superintendent Chalmers, he applies the knowledge he gains from Marge's homeschooling to help Lisa expose the fraudulent and cruel nature of the holiday.

The episode includes the first appearance of Superintendent Chalmers, and features an Itchy & Scratchy parody of Oliver Stone's film JFK.

Bart escapes through a ventilation shaft and takes Groundskeeper Willie's tractor for a joyride, accidentally crashing into Chalmers.

On Whacking Day, Barry White arrives to begin the festivities, but quickly leaves in disgust when he discovers the holiday is dedicated to killing snakes.

Bart suggests to Lisa that they lure the snakes to safety by playing music with heavy bass from the stereo speakers.

White, who just happens to be walking by, agrees to help by singing "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe", attracting hundreds of snakes into the house.

Skinner is impressed with Bart's efforts and welcomes him back to the school, but then realizes in horror that he completely forgot about Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney and Nelson, because they are still in the utility basement; they are shown talking about their feelings and comforting each other.

Writer George Meyer, who was very "animal conscious", was interested in writing an episode related to an annual ritual held in a Texan town, where the townspeople would beat rattlesnakes with sticks.

[3] The episode's first act was one of the shortest the staff had ever written at that time, roughly ten pages in length, but with no ideas to expand, they left it as it was.

[3] In order to speed up animation, director Jeffrey Lynch "begged" storyboard artists Kevin O'Brien and Steve Markowski to help him with the episode.

[10] Andrew Martin of Prefix Mag named White his fifth favorite musical guest on The Simpsons out of a list of ten.

The article quoted show runner Al Jean as saying: "I agree with the premise of the episode: leave the snakes alone.

Club, Nathan Rabin writes “'Whacking Day' is arguably the purest and most scathing attack on mob mentality in The Simpsons’ oeuvre, purer and more trenchant even than 'Marge Vs.

The Monorail'...By the time Mayor Quimby shows up at the Simpson home—where the snakes have found shelter from the mob after being attracted by the bass in Barry White's voice—to bask in Springfield’s hatred of snakes, he’s surprised and a little disgusted to discover that the angry mob has turned unexpectedly into an aggregation of snake-fanciers.