baby-injury-related business in Springfield to go in decline. Homer feels bad for making people such as pediatricians lose their jobs and urges the children to get themselves hurt in order to save the pediatricians' careers. After realizing that Francine did not beat her up at the swimming pool because she was wearing a nose blocker, Lisa does scientific research on nerds and discovers that the odor of the chemical nerd pheromone "poindextrose" attracts bullies like Francine, proving that both nerds and bullies are predisposed to be what they are. Lisa then tests the poindextrose extracted from the nerds on famous boxer Drederick Tatum by putting it on his clothes when he visits the school. This causes Nelson to start punching Tatum uncontrollably and give him a wedgie. Lisa demonstrates her experiment at Professor Frink's science conference, the "12th Annual Big Science Thing", using an antidote on herself and making Francine peaceful and friendly towards her, the antidote being just salad dressing which covers up the smell of the poindextrose. The audience is impressed and Lisa is awarded a gift certificate from J. C. Penney for her research. However, the salad dressing soon runs out and Francine goes on an unprovoked rampage beating up all the scientists in the room. Francine’s parents suggest just letting Francine tire herself out from the beatings, just before Francine ends the episode by lunging forward, presumably toward the cameraman. Production The episode was produced as part of the twelfth season of The Simpsons (2000–01) and was written by writing partners John Frink and Don Payne. "Bye Bye Nerdie" was the first episode of the show directed by Lauren MacMullan, who joined the staff of The Simpsons following the cancellation of the short-lived television series Mission Hill, which was created by former Simpsons writers and executive producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein on which she worked as a supervising director and designer. American actress and stand-up comedian Kathy Griffin guest starred in the episode as the bully Francine. MacMullan designed this new character herself and tried to make her seem like a professional bully by having her carry her lunch box with her all the time like a briefcase. "Bye Bye Nerdie" was initially titled "Lisa the Bully" because the original idea for the episode, which the writers first pitched, saw Lisa becoming so fed up with Francine's behavior that she attempted to punch Francine. However,