Bart Gets an Elephant

"Bart Gets an Elephant" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 1994. In this episode, Bart wins a radio contest and is awarded a full-grown African elephant that he names Stampy. After Stampy wrecks the Simpsons' house and eats all the food, Homer decides to sell Stampy to an ivory dealer. Bart runs away with Stampy to save his pet, but the family finds the two at a museum exhibit, where Homer sinks into a tar pit. Homer is saved by Stampy, and so gives the elephant away to an animal refuge instead.

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Jim Reardon. It introduced the fictional elephant Stampy, and marks the first appearance of the recurring character Cletus Spuckler. The episode features cultural references to the songs "Sixteen Tons" and "Do-Re-Mi", and the La Brea Tar Pits cluster of tar pits located in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 10.7, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

During cleaning day at the Simpsons' house, Bart wins a KBBL radio contest after the station's DJs, Bill and Marty, call him up. They give Bart the choice of two prizes: $10,000 in cash or a full-grown African elephant. Bart chooses the elephant. This surprises Bill and Marty, who believed that nobody would ever choose an elephant, and thus have no elephant to give away. They offer Bart a variety of other prizes, all of which he refuses. Word spreads throughout town about Bill and Marty's refusal to give Bart an elephant, prompting their boss to give them a choice: either arrange for delivery of the elephant, or lose their jobs. They decide on the former option.