Like several other episodes before it, "Lisa's First Word" starts with Homer and Marge telling the kids a story in flashback. We see Bart on his first day of Kindergarten and Lisa as a baby. Bart has a hard time fitting in at school, made all the worse by the attention drawn away from him by Lisa. He becomes resentful towards her and unleashes his anger on her, but soon she spits out her first word: "Bart". Elated, Bart shows Homer and Marge Lisa's new talent, and she begins to pick up other words as well, but just like her older brother, she is unable to say "Daddy", instead referring to him as "Homer". Oddly enough the most emotional moment of the episode is not the titular first words of Lisa, but instead the first word of Maggie. At the end of the episode Homer puts the youngest Simpson to bed, telling her "You know, Maggie. The sooner kids learn to talk, the sooner they talk back. I hope you never say a word." Just after he leaves Maggie removes her pacifier and says her first word: "Daddy". It's the final punchline to an episode-long running gag, and yet it's more likely to make you shed a tear than to inspire a laugh.
Sarah is a twenty-something film school graduate and mother-to-be from Arizona. She loves to write and is currently working on a novel that may be finished sometime in the next fifty years. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Final Fantasy, and Supernatural are among her various obsessions.
