Bart Gets Famous

"Bart Gets Famous"
The Simpsons episode
The episode's promotional image featuring Bart and Conan O'Brien
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 12
Directed by	Susie Dietter
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Production code	1F11
Original air date	February 3, 1994 (1994-02-03)
Guest appearance
Conan O'Brien as himself
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man"[1]
Couch gag	The family collides when running and lands into the couch as one big mass of amorphous glop.[2]
Commentary	Matt Groening James L. Brooks David Mirkin Conan O'Brien Susie Dietter David Silverman
Episode chronology
← Previous "Homer the Vigilante" Next → "Homer and Apu"
The Simpsons season 5
List of episodes

"Bart Gets Famous" is the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 3, 1994. In the episode, Bart gets a job as Krusty the Clown's production assistant. He replaces Sideshow Mel in one of Krusty's skits and accidentally destroys the stage props. When Bart says "I didn't do it," he instantly becomes famous for his catchphrase.

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Susie Dietter, which was the first episode of the series to be directed by her. Many characters from the show have catchphrases, and the episode mocks the use of catchphrase-based humor. The writers chose the phrase "I didn't do it" because they wanted a "lousy" phrase "to point out how really crummy things can become really popular".^[3] Conan O'Brien, a writer for The Simpsons during the fourth and early part of the fifth season, guest stars as himself. The writers decided to include him in the episode after he received an audition from NBC to replace David Letterman as the host of Late Night.

In its original broadcast, "Bart Gets Famous" finished 40th in ratings with a Nielsen rating of 11.7, and was viewed in 10.74 million households.