Scenes From the Class Struggle in Springfield

When Grampa tries to "fix" the family's television, it breaks irreparably, so the family travels to the Ogdenville outlet mall. Marge and Lisa wander off to a discounted store and Marge locates a fancy Chanel suit, which has been marked from $2,800 and is now $90. Marge is first reluctant to buy the suit, but after Lisa's convincing that it's a great buy, Marge purchases the suit, so she becomes infatuated with it and wears it constantly, begging Homer to take her somewhere fancy so the suit can be put to good use. However, one day when Marge wears it to the Kwik-E-Mart, she runs into an old classmate, Evelyn, who is impressed by Marge's fashion sense and invites her to come to the Springfield Country Club (even though Marge has married Homer, as Evelyn originally assumed it was a rumor). Marge, intimidated by the wealthy club members, works hard to fit in with their snobbish ways. Along the way, Marge loses interest in her family and becomes obsessed with both impressing the club members and altering her suit so she comes off as wealthy.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family is uncomfortable at the country club until Lisa finds the stables and Homer begins playing golf. Homer is revealed to have a knack for golf, and Mr. Burns, having seen Homer's skill in the bathroom at work, challenges him to a match. Mr. Burns believes that he is the best golfer in Springfield, and is determined to take down Homer. However, once they begin playing, Homer, who is in disbelief at one of Mr. Burns' shots, runs over to the green and finds Mr. Smithers replacing the ball Mr. Burns hit with a new one that is close to the hole. Homer, who breaks out in a sing-songy over Mr. Burns' cheating, threatens to tell everyone about how Mr. Burns is not the best golfer he says he is. Mr. Smithers then offers Homer a chance to be sponsored for membership if he keeps quiet about the decades of Mr. Burns' cheating, since Mr. Burns holds a lot of influence at the club. Homer is unswayed, as he does not care about joining the club. However, Mr. Burns reminds Homer that the family being allowed to join the club is important to Marge.

In the meantime, Marge is offended by a crack made by one of the snobby club members and is eager to change the suit even more to impress at a party. However, due to Lisa's annoyingly inquisitive nature, Marge accidentally destroys the suit on the sewing machine. Marge rushes back to the Ogdenville outlet mall, but there are no suitable clothes for the party. Marge, having nowhere left to turn, goes to the actual Chanel store and purchases a $3,300 dress. When she and the rest of the Simpsons arrive at the party, Marge criticizes the behavior of everyone in her family, including Maggie. Homer tells Marge that he and the kids have realized what awful people they are compared to the changed Marge. Marge realizes that she has changed for the worse, and goes to Krusty Burger with her family instead of the party. However, it is later revealed that the party was actually supposed to be an initiation party, as Evelyn Peters, Mr. Burns, and the rest of the club has decided to sponsor their membership. The snobby club member who frequently bashed and insulted Marge remarks that she hopes that Marge didn't take her "attempt to destroy her too seriously."


The PTA Disbands

After a failed attempt at a school field trip, which appears to have caused the apparent abandonment and brutal beating of the student Üter, Edna Krabappel calls an emergency strike on behalf of the Teachers' Union of Springfield Elementary, to protest against Principal Skinner's miserly spending on school supplies and activities.

As the teachers' strike results in the closing of the school, the various student characters respond to the sudden turn of events in their own ways: Lisa becomes increasingly obsessive in her desire to be graded, Milhouse is forced by his parents to take private tutoring lessons (which improve his education), Jimbo Jones finds himself immersed in the intricacies of daytime soap operas with his mother, Dolph and Kearney become easily bored with video games, and Bart revels in his newfound afternoon freedom and annoys many Springfield citizens by imitating other people to make them angry or hurt each other. In particular, Bart does what he can to keep the union and Principal Skinner at odds with each other. The two sides are at an impasse; the union wanting a restoration of funding and Skinner maintaining that even with the spending reductions he has made, government budget cuts have squeezed the school dry.

After some prompting from an exasperated Marge Simpson, the parents of Springfield eventually decide to take matters into their own hands, and recruit volunteers from the community to take over as temporary teachers. This turns out to be even worse for the students than before the strike, especially as Marge becomes Bart's new teacher after Skinner learns he has chased away previous substitutes including Moe and decided he needed use her to keep Bart in line. Jasper becomes Lisa's new teacher and gets his beard stuck in a pencil sharpener, which makes her worried about not being able to get into her dream school Vassar College. Due to Marge's excessive mothering of Bart, he grudgingly resolves to force the strike negotiations forward. Together with Milhouse, he tricks both Krabappel and Principal Skinner into entering Skinner's office, which he then locks behind them. After spending several hours trapped together "like prisoners" in their own school, the two are mutually inspired with an idea to create extra revenue for more school spending. Things return to normal with the old teachers in charge, but with the school cloakrooms having been rented to the Springfield Prison. Each classroom now features several full prison cells at the back, which have the added benefit of keeping the more troublesome students in line. Snake Jailbird makes a deal with Bart to get him out of prison, promising him to "make it worth your while", to which Bart responses shortly afterwards "I'm listening".

Pta, though class struggle has that marvelous wit line