The Monorail Song  "The Monorail Song" is a song written and performed for the fourth-season episode of "The Simpsons" entitled "Marge vs. the Monorail", which aired in 1993. The song was written by then-show runner Al Jean and Conan O'Brien, and was performed by Phil Hartman as Lyle Lanley, along with other Simpsons characters. The song sees a traveling salesman razzle dazzle the local town into spending their money on a monorail, with all criticism being washed aside through the charismatic performance. The song, and the entire episode in which it takes place, has similarities to songs from the 1958 musical "A Music Man". During the song, the residents of Springfield get "swept up in Lanley's patter". "Bustle" deemed it a "quintessential moment" of "The Simpsons", when the whole town is caught up in a group number. Like the musical on which its based, Bustle argues the song teaches "small lesson in infrastructure and the real reason cons work". It felt the song acted as a "commentary on corruption in political infrastructure" that filled the viewer with "pure dumb joy". "The Washington Post" deemed it a "brilliant...sendup" of "The Music Man". Junkee felt it was "One of the show’s most overt tributes to musical theatre", and described it as the most "uniquely memorable" the Springfield "hive mind" ever got. "Paste Magazine" deemed it the "quintessential Springfield ensemble number", and noted how the song summarizes the town's general mob mentality while giving individual characters their moments, and showing that even the 'smart' people of Springfield can be duped. "Bustle" felt the song " highlight[s] the wonderful recipe of old fashioned small-town whimsy and modern cynicism and aggressive ignorance" that makes up Springfield. The song commonly rates very highly on reviewers' rankings of the best Simpsons songs. In 1997 it was released as part of the Simpsons soundtrack album "Songs in the Key of Springfield". In 2014 Conan O'Brien and Hank Azaria performed the song live at a Simpsons-themed performance at the Hollywood Bowl entitled "The Simpsons Take The Hollywood Bowl".