After Bart winds up in hospital after biting into a metal jagged Krusty-O, Lisa encounters Jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy in a hospital bed, and the two, sharing an interest in jazz music, hit it off immediately. Murphy even lends Lisa his saxophone to use in her upcoming school performance and when she later arrives at the hospital to return it, sadly discovers an empty hospital bed and is told by a nurse he had died (for reasons never explained in the show). At the funeral, Lisa is the only attendee, as Reverend Lovejoy blunders his way through the service, calling the deceased 'Blood and Guts Murphy' and 'Bloody Gums Murphy' before observing that he was "quite the sousaphone player". Determined to honour her late friend's memory in the correct and proper way, Lisa buys Murphy's album using the $500 dollars awarded to Bart in an out-of-court settlement for his Krusty-O trauma, and has it played on the radio. The signal isn't strong enough, but lightning strikes the antenna and the music oozes out for all of Springfield to hear as Murphy appears to Lisa as a vision in the clouds and the two heartrendingly play "Jazzman" one last time.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
