

Pranksta Rap

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Season 16 Episode
343 "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass"
"Pranksta Rap"
"There's Something About Marrying" 345
"Pranksta Rap"
Pranksta Rap promo.png
Episode Information
Episode number: 344
Season number: S16 E9
Production code: GABF03
Original airdate: February 13, 2005
Couch gag: The living room floor is a chessboard and the family hops to the couch dressed as chess pieces.
Guest star(s): 50 Cent as himself
Showrunner(s): Al Jean
Written by: Matt Selman
Directed by: Mike B. Anderson

"Pranksta Rap" is the ninth episode of the season 16 of The Simpsons and the three-hundred and forty-fourth episode overall. It originally aired on February 13, 2005. The episode was written by Matt Selman and directed by Mike B. Anderson. It guest stars 50 Cent as himself.


"Homer and Marge don't let Bart go to a rap concert, so he escapes and tells his parents he was kidnapped, but Chief Wiggum believes the kidnapper is Kirk Van Houten and he arrests him."


Bart after rapping at an Alcatraaz concert.

At home, Santa's Little Helper accidentally swallows the remote control for the TV. Whenever he barked, the channel changed. Eventually, a show called Hip-Hoppenings comes on, which Bart watches. The show says that the concert Murder 4 Life is coming to Springfield, which Bart wants to attend. After asking Homer if he could go, Bart buys a ticket and gets ready to head out when Marge catches him and tells him he can't go. Homer sides with Marge and Bart goes to his room. Bart then decides to sneak out and visit the concert anyway since he bought a ticket.

Bart takes a bus to the Springfield Coliseum where the concert is being held. As he's watching the show, Alcatraaaz drops his microphone, which then rolls towards Bart. Bart picks it up and Alcatraaaz tells him to put the microphone down if he can't use it. Bart then gets on stage and begins rapping with Alcatraaaz. Impressed by this, Alcatraaaz takes Bart home in his hummer limo, passing by 50 Cent in his golden hummer limo on the way home. After Bart is dropped off, he overhears Homer and Marge talking about him, as they know he sneaked out. Worried about getting punished, Bart pretends that he got kidnapped instead.

As the search for Bart starts, Bart goes to see Milhouse, who takes him to his father's apartment to hide out. As Bart phones his parents pretending to be the kidnapper, he makes Chintzy-Pop popcorn. Kirk then comes back home and Bart flees into Milhouse's room. Chief Wiggum listens to the phone call and works out the sound in the background is Chintzy-Pop popcorn. He goes to the Kwik-E-Mart and finds that the only people who buy Chintzy-Pop are him and Kirk. The police then storm into Kirk's apartment and arrest him, saving Bart.

The town celebrates Wiggum as a hero, whilst Milhouse is annoyed at Bart for sending his dad to jail. Chief Wiggum is also promoted to commissioner and Kirk enjoys the attention he gets from women for being a criminal. However, Bart begins to feel guilty and tells Commissioner Wiggum that he lied. Wiggum tells Bart that everyone is happier with the lie so Bart decides to carry on with it. After this, Lisa finds a Murder 4 Life vest that Bart got at the concert and realizes that Bart lied. When she tells Homer this, Homer burns the evidence as he has already agreed to movie deals for the story. Lisa then goes to Principal Skinner to get him to help instead.

Homer, Bart, Wiggum and Kirk all meet in Kirk's jail cell where they discuss the lie being discovered. Meanwhile, Skinner and Lisa go to Alcatraaaz's mansion to ask him for the footage from the Murder 4 Life concert, getting the evidence they need to know that Bart had lied. Homer, Bart and Wiggum then show up to try and stop them and Homer accidentally knocks the TV off the wall, causing Alcatraaaz's gang to point guns at them. Alcatraaaz stops them and decides to throw a house party.

At the house party, Skinner asks Alcatraaaz if there's a place for someone like him in the hip-hop world. Alcatraaaz says there is, but that's already taken by Superintendent Chalmers.


The episode came around due to the film 8 Mile coming out and Selman decided to make a story about Bart, a white kid, liking rap. Selman also wanted to do a Wiggum episode based around him feeling bad for being terrible at his job and actually doing good work, only to find it wasn't a real crime.[1] When 50 Cent recorded his lines, he came into the studio with a lot of bling on. However, the microphones were so sensitive that they picked up on the bling making noise whenever he moved, so he was asked to remove a lot of it.[2] Some of 50 Cent's pronunciations in lines weren't great, and were described bu the audio editor as "a poop salesman with a mouth full of sample." The scene of Milhouse playing frisbee with himself is because writer Matt Warburton was an only child so did it as a child. Al Jean the wanted to loop the scene as long as possible.[1]

The cover up 2005 jacket is based on the real Simpsons crew jacket.[1] None of the animators wanted to do the scene in Alcatraaaz's shoe closet because of all the shoes that had to be drawn.[3] Some of the designs and scenes at Alcatraaaz's mansion were based on the show MTV Cribs. The ending went through several rewrites due to the moral problem involving the lie about the crime. They weren't sure if they wanted to have it end with the crime still buried or not.[1]


As of January 2020, the episode has a 6.6 rating on IMDb[4] and a 7.5 rating on TV.com.[5]

In other languages[edit]

Language Name Translation
France.png Français "Le rap de Bart" Bart's Rap


  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Selman, Matt (2013). Commentary for "Pranksta Rap", in The Simpsons: The Complete Sixteenth Season.
  2. Cartwright, Nancy (2013). Commentary for "Pranksta Rap", in The Simpsons: The Complete Sixteenth Season.
  3. Anderson, Mike B. (2013). Commentary for "Pranksta Rap", in The Simpsons: The Complete Sixteenth Season.
  4. IMDb - "Pranksta Rap"
  5. TV.com - "Pranksta Rap"

The Saga of Carl - title screen.png Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Pranksta Rap".
Season 16 Episodes
Treehouse of Horror XV All's Fair in Oven War Sleeping with the Enemy She Used to Be My Girl Fat Man and Little Boy Midnight Rx Mommie Beerest Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass Pranksta Rap There's Something About Marrying On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister Goo Goo Gai Pan Mobile Homer The Seven-Beer Snitch Future-Drama Don't Fear the Roofer The Heartbroke Kid A Star Is Torn Thank God It's Doomsday Home Away from Homer The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star