The Lincoln Squirrel headline isn't great because of the newspaper gag itself, but how it pays off later in the episode. Appearing in season three's Radio Bart (the episode where Bart poses as a kid who has fallen down a well, then really falls down a well), the headline serves to take attention away from Bart's plight, as the townsfolk no longer care about the boy who has pulled a fast one on them. Later in the episode, Kent Brockman cuts in on the Channel 6 News to announce that the Lincoln Squirrel has been shot, complete with a photo of a chalk outline of the body lying next to the outline of an acorn. That's when the joke really cashes in.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.