text: bart sells his soul " bart sells his soul " is the fourth episode of the simpsons ' seventh season . it first aired in the united states on the fox network , on october 8 , 1995 . in the episode , while being punished for playing a prank at church , bart declares that there is no such thing as a soul and to prove it he sells his to milhouse for $ 5 in the form of a piece of paper with " bart simpson 's soul " written on it . lisa warns that bart will regret this decision , and bart soon experiences strange changes in his life . thinking he has really lost his soul , he becomes desperate to get it back . lisa eventually obtains it and returns it to a relieved bart. " bart sells his soul " was written by greg daniels , who was inspired by an experience from his youth where he had purchased a bully 's soul . director wesley archer and his team of animators visited chili 's for examples to use in moe 's family restaurant . the episode includes cultural references to the song " in - a - gadda - da - vida " , by iron butterfly , chilean poet pablo neruda , and a parody of the book are you there god ? it 's me , margaret . , by judy blume . writers from the fields of religion , philosophy , popular culture , and psychology cited the episode in books discussing the simpsons and the show 's approach to the nature of the soul . the episode was positively received by the media , and is regarded as one of the seventh season 's and the series ' best . the creative team of the simpsons puts the episode among the top five best episodes of the series , and series creator matt groening cited " bart sells his soul " as one of his favorite episodes . it has been used by secondary schools in religious education courses as a teaching tool . this episode is considered by many fans and critics as one of the darkest episodes from the simpsons . plot during a church service , bart tricks the congregation by distributing the lyrics to a hymn titled " in the garden of eden " by " i. ron butterfly " , which is actually the psychedelic rock song " in - a - gadda - da - vida " by iron butterfly , that the unwitting parishioners and organist proceed to perform for 17 minutes , after which the elderly organist passes out from exhaustion . reverend lovejoy demands that the perpetrator step forward , with threats of fire and brimstone , at which milhouse on bart. lovejoy sentences bart ( as well as milhouse for tattling ) to clean the pipe organ . bart is indignant with milhouse , who apologizes but was fearful of losing his soul . bart proclaims that there is no such thing as a soul and for $ 5 agrees to sell his to milhouse in the form of a piece of paper saying " bart simpson 's soul " . lisa warns that bart will regret selling his soul , but he dismisses her fears . however , bart soon finds that santa 's little helper and snowball ii seem hostile towards him , automatic doors fail to open for him , when he breathes on the freezer doors at the kwik - e - mart no condensation forms , and he can no longer laugh at itchy & scratchy cartoons . suspecting he literally lost his soul , he sets out to retrieve it . bart attempts to retrieve his soul from milhouse , who agrees to sell it ... for $ 50 , then laughs at bart for being the fool . that night , bart has a nightmare about being the only child in springfield who does not have a soul . lisa torments bart with a dinnertime prayer leading him to make a desperate , all - out attempt to get the piece of paper back . bart crosses town to where milhouse and his parents are staying with his grandmother while their house is being fumigated . the visit turns out to be fruitless ; milhouse had traded the paper to comic book guy at the android 's dungeon . a frustrated bart runs off into the night . he encounters ralph wiggum in his father 's police cruiser and attempts to buy his soul . when ralph refuses he hisses and disappears in a vale of smoke and haze . the following morning , an annoyed comic book guy tells bart that he no longer has the piece of paper but refuses to reveal to whom he sold it . bart walks home in the rain , then in his room he prays to god for his soul . suddenly , a piece of paper with the words " bart simpson 's soul " floats down from above . bart discovers that lisa had purchased the piece of paper . while she explains philosophers ' opinions on the human soul , bart happily devours the piece of paper . realizing how uninterested bart was in about her lecture about the human soul , lisa tells him that she hoped he learned his lesson from this . at night when bart goes to bed , he and his soul are having fun with their quirks , proving that bart did learn his lesson in the consequences of selling his soul . in the subplot , moe attempts to expand his customer base by converting his tavern into a family restaurant called " uncle moe 's family " , after numerous unhelpful concept ideas from homer . the restaurant turns out to be a t.g.i. friday 's - style restaurant full of tacky decorations and gimmicks , including one where a special french fries dish is served with the basket strapped to moe 's head . however , the stress of running a family restaurant by himself ultimately starts to drive him unhinged , especially his ill - conceived policy of voiding the bill for anyone he does not smile for when he gives it to them . finally , driven over the edge , he yells at a little girl who complained that the soda was too cold . the family patrons are outraged and abandon the restaurant , forcing moe to return the restaurant to the run - down tavern . production " bart sells his soul " was the second episode to have bill oakley and josh weinstein as executive producers . oakley and weinstein wanted to start the season with episodes that had an emotional bias in an effort to center the simpson family . the episode was written by greg daniels , who originally had an idea for a plot that dealt with racism in springfield . the writers did not think the simpsons was the right forum for it , so daniels suggested the idea of selling someone 's soul , which originated in his childhood . in high school , daniels encouraged a bully to sell him his soul for 50 cents , and then convinced classmates to frighten the bully into buying his soul back for an inflated price . daniels repeated this ploy , but stopped when he realized that the only other person in history who has profited off others ' souls was satan , and that " scared " him . in the opening scene of the episode , the congregation of the first church of springfield are tricked into singing " in a gadda da vida " by iron butterfly . daniels had originally intended for the song to be " jesus he knows me " by british rock band genesis , but the producers were unable to obtain the rights for it to be featured in the episode . the episode was directed by wesley archer . archer and his team of animators went to the restaurant chain chili 's to get inspiration for the background designs of moe 's family restaurant . he said it was " quite a task " to transform moe 's tavern into a family - oriented establishment . archer added that he was not " quite happy " with the result , and that they could have designed it " a little better " . weinstein recalled that there was contention between the animators about the way moe looked in the episode . moe 's original design includes a missing tooth , but weinstein and oakley felt that it did not " look right " because moe was such a prominent character in the episode . archer showed the original design of moe from the first season to the show runners , and said : " here , look . he 's got a missing tooth ! " , but the scenes that had moe with a missing tooth in them were still reanimated . archer was disappointed with the dream sequence in which bart sees his friends playing with their souls . archer said that he had forgotten to tell the animators to make the souls transparent , so they were painted blue instead . in the american version of this episode , in the segment where moe has an outburst and todd says , " ow ! my freakin ' ears ! " , flanders says that he expects to hear bad language at denny 's . in the german dub , " denny 's " is replaced with " mcdonald 's & burger king " , since mcdonald 's & burger king are known more in other countries than denny 's is . similarly , in the italian dub ned mentions burger king instead of denny 's . themes kurt m. koenigsberger comments in leaving springfield that " a good deal of enjoyment " is to be had from the episode , due to " the exposure of the hypocrisy behind ' the finance of salvation ' and the ambivalent operations of the commercial world " . don , a fellow of emmanuel college , cambridge , believes that when lisa lectures bart about the soul , she " shows a degree of theological sophistication which is simply not tolerated in britain . " paul bloom and david pizarro write in the psychology of the simpsons that although lisa does show " healthy religious skepticism " she still believes in an eternal soul . however , lisa tells bart at the end of the episode , " some philosophers believe that no one is born with a soul , you have to earn one through suffering " . bloom and pizarro acknowledge " indeed , some philosophers and theologians say that without belief in a soul , one cannot make sense of the social concepts on which we rely , such as personal responsibility and freedom of the will . " m. keith booker cites the episode in drawn to television , while discussing the simpsons treatment of religion . booker cites a scene from the episode where milhouse asks bart what religions have to gain by lying about concepts such as the existence of a soul – and then the scene cuts to reverend lovejoy counting his money ; booker believes that this implies that religions create mythologies so that they can gain money from followers . he juxtaposes this with bart 's realization later in the episode that " life suddenly feels empty and incomplete " without a soul , which suggests " either that the soul is real or it is at least a useful fiction " . mark i. pinsky and samuel f. parvin discuss the episode in their book the gospel according to the simpsons : leader 's guide for group study , and use examples from it to stimulate discussion among youth about the nature of the soul . pinsky and parvin note bart 's statement to milhouse from the beginning of the episode : " soul — come on , milhouse , there 's no such thing as a soul . it 's just something they made up to scare kids , like the boogie man or michael jackson , " and then suggest questions to ask students , including whether they know individuals that agree with bart , and their views on the existence of a soul . in planet simpson , chris turner quotes bart 's revelation to lisa that he sold his soul to milhouse for five dollars and used the money to buy sponges shaped like dinosaurs . after lisa criticizes bart for selling his soul , bart responds : " poor gullible lisa . i 'll keep my crappy sponges , thanks . " turner comments " here bart is the epitome of the world - weary hipster , using the degraded language of modern marketing to sell off the most sacred parts of himself because he knows that some cheap sponge is more real , hence more valuable , than even the loftiest of abstract principles . " cultural references on the dvd audio commentary for the episode , writer greg daniels cited martin scorsese 's 1985 film after hours as an influence on bart 's night - time trek to retrieve his soul from milhouse , only to experience a series of unusual encounters . reverend lovejoy leads his congregation in a hymnal version of the song " in - a - gadda - da - vida " , by iron butterfly , titled " in the garden of eden " , by " i. ron butterfly " . the version of the song in the simpsons episode lasts for 17 minutes ; and reverend lovejoy inspects the music and states that it " sounds like rock and / or roll . " during an argument between lisa and bart , while discussing the relationship between laughter and the soul , lisa quotes chilean poet pablo neruda , and bart responds " i am familiar with the works of pablo neruda . " kurt m. koenigsberger comments in leaving springfield " while bart may be familiar with the canon of chilean poetry , the joke takes its force in part from the probability that the simpsons ' viewers are not . " bart begins a prayer to god with " are you there , god ? it 's me , bart simpson " . this is a parody of the book are you there god ? it 's me , margaret . , by judy blume . reception in its original american broadcast , " bart sells his soul " finished 43rd in the ratings for the week of october 2 – 8 , 1995 , with a nielsen rating of 8 . 8 , equivalent to approximately 8 . 4 million viewing households . it was the fourth highest - rated show on the fox network that week after the x - files , melrose place and beverly hills , 90210 . in july 2007 , an article in the san mateo county times notes that " bart sells his soul " is seen as one of " the most popular episodes in ' simpsons ' history " . noel holston of the star tribune highlighted the episode in the paper 's " critic 's choice " section . the intelligencer journal described " bart sells his soul " as " a particularly good episode " of the simpsons . the lansing state journal highlighted the episode in the season seven dvd release , along with the conclusion of " who shot mr. burns " and " the simpsons 138th episode spectacular " . the sunday herald sun called it one of the " show 's most memorable episodes " , as did the courier mail . the aberdeen press & journal described the episode as " one of the darkest episodes of the simpsons " . in their section on the episode in the book i can 't believe it 's a bigger and better updated unofficial simpsons guide , warren martyn and adrian wood comment : " undoubtedly the most disturbing episode of the series , with bart 's nightmare of losing his soul — illustrated by a macabre playground where all the souls of his playmates are visible , and his is tagging along with milhouse — more frightening than funny . ... an illustration of just how far the series could go by this point . " in april 2003 , the episode was listed by the simpsons creative team as among the top five best episodes of the series , including " last exit to springfield " , " cape feare " , " 22 short films about springfield " , and " homer at the bat " . in a 2005 interview the simpsons creator matt groening commented " i don 't have a single favorite . there 's a bunch i really like , " but cited " bart sells his soul " and " homer 's enemy " as among episodes he loves . bart 's voice actress nancy cartwright stated " bart sells his soul " is one of her top three episodes together with " lisa 's substitute " and " bart the mother " . the episode has been used in church courses about the nature of a soul in connecticut , and in the united kingdom , and was shown by a minister in scotland in one of his sermons . a 2005 report on religious education in secondary schools , by the united kingdom education watchdog group office for standards in education , children 's services and skills ( ofsted ) , noted that the episode was being used as a teaching tool .