 " Bart 's Girlfriend " was written by Jonathan Collier and directed by Susie Dietter . David Mirkin , who was show runner at the time , originally had the idea of Bart having a girlfriend that was more evil than he was . Mirkin gave the idea to Collier to write it with the help of the show 's executive producer , James L. Brooks . Collier said later that he thought it was a case of Brooks coming up with good ideas and him " giggling <unk> " . The idea for the ending of the episode was to have none of the characters learn anything from the experience . 
