sits on the couch in, and the episode ends with his attempt to try and fix it after they had ruined it by sitting on it themselves. Production The carnival in this episode is based on The Eastern States Exposition (currently known as The Big E) fair. As a child, Mike Scully went to the fair, and had hoped one day to be a carny. This is the only episode that Mark Kirkland told his parents not to watch. This is due to Bart's line "Out of my way, I'm Hitler". Kirkland's stepfather was a lieutenant in World War II and was injured while in combat. Cooder was modeled after David Mirkin, the showrunner of seasons five and six and co-writer and the executive producer of two episodes in the ninth season. Spud's head shape is modeled after Bart's head. The "fisheye effect", when Cooder is looking through the peep hole, was drawn by hand, not optically, by assistant director Matthew Nastuk. Matt Groening said they had several endings worked out, including one where Homer made the hula hoop over the chimney. Cultural references When Homer and Bart talk through their teeth while holding the chickens, it is a reference to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby films. Some of the prizes for the ring toss game are a Def Leppard mirror, a Rubik's Cube, and a Magic 8-Ball. The song being played at the end when Homer fixes his "ass groove" is "Groove Me" by King Floyd. The episode makes references to two past Simpsons episodes. Marge advises Homer not ride the Tooth Chipper roller coaster because of his quadruple bypass. During the family's glass-bottom boat ride, a barrel of Li'l Lisa's Patented Animal Slurry is visible on the sea floor. Reception In its original broadcast, "Bart Carny" finished 13th in ratings for the week of January 5–11, 1998, with a Nielsen rating of 11.9, equivalent to approximately 11.7 million viewing households, making it the highest rated episode of Season 9. It was tied with King of the Hill as the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "one of the most dismally unfunny episodes ever, lifted only by the brief appearance of a talking camel and Homer's clever way of