Bart and Lisa are excited to leave the Simpsons’ house for the summer and spend it at Kamp Krusty, only to find that it’s nothing like the advertisement and eventually the kids revolt.

Plot: Bart and Lisa leave the Simpsons’ house and go to Kamp Krusty for the summer, only to be terribly disappointed once they arrive.

Why is it a great episode? For starters, it’s a perfectly paced episode full of classic moments which include; Bart’s dream about the last day of school, Lisa’s letter home, Barney dressing up as a fake Krusty and calling him the wrong name, and Homer’s reaction to Bart changing his grades. The episode is also a terrific parody of summer camp culture and everything that comes with it.

But on a deeper level, the episode does a great job of capturing the mood for when a child is let down by an adult they respect and trust. Bart has no real faith in Homer, so he can’t really be let down by his Dad, but Krusty is another matter. Out of all the characters on The Simpsons, Krusty is the only person who Bart really admires, which means that he’s also the one person who can really shatter his beliefs. While Krusty has definitely let him down before, this particular letdown is particularly brutal and pushes Bart over the edge.

It isn’t an exaggeration when Lisa confesses to be far more cynical when writing the letter home to her parents, because anyone who’s ever been let down by an adult when they were a child can tell you exactly when that moment was and how it made them feel. Because that is the moment when a child really stops being a child and starts on the path to adulthood. Unfortunately, some children experience disappointment from an adult figure they trust far earlier than others.