Plot
After seeing 38-year-old
Carlos Lopes in the
1984 Summer Olympics on TV,
Homer decides to participate in the
Springfield marathon to prove to
Marge that he is fit. In the end though,
Bart comes out as a surprise winner, by entering from a side alley near the end, wearing a
stereotypical Italian costume as a disguise. Unfortunately, while receiving the trophy, a
bird rips off Bart's fake
moustache, causing an
angry mob to chase after him. Cornered, he accepts a ride from a stranger to escape. The stranger introduces himself as 'L.T. Smash', who happens to be a
music producer. Smash offers Bart a career as a member of a
boyband known as "The Party Posse", as his stunt showed he has the right bad boy attitude. Bart accepts, and becomes the Party Posse's fourth member, joining
Nelson,
Ralph and
Milhouse. The Party Posse quickly ascend to stardom, albeit using complex
voice enhancers built by
NASA. They perform at Springfield Elementary to high applause.
The band releases a single video, directed by
Ang Lee, titled "Drop Da Bomb", which contains the chorus, 'Yvan eht Nioj'. Lisa's growing suspicion around The Party Posse eventually results in her
discovering the line is a
subliminal recruiting message to join the Navy, as 'Yvan eht Nioj' is 'Join the Navy' written backwards. In addition, while freeze-framing the video Lisa discovers that a recruiting poster featuring
Uncle Sam was included in the video for a split second. Lisa sees that
Otto has decided to join the Navy, and so goes to find L.T. Smash, where she discovers that he is actually
Lieutenant L.T. Smash (The joke being that both his rank and name are the same; 'Lt.' is the abbreviation for the Navy rank of Lieutenant). He says he is working to recruit people for the
United States Navy, and that bands have often been used for recruiting. Lisa points out her discoveries to Homer and Marge, but they dismiss her accusations as jealousy of Bart. The events come to a head when The Party Posse perform at a concert on an
aircraft carrier, which only increases Lisa's suspicion towards the band. During the first song (which also contains subliminal messages), Smash learns from his superior officer that
Mad Magazine's next issue will lampoon The Party Posse, calling them 'The Potty Posse', and thus the band will no longer have any recruiting power.