The fifth season comes right between the two greatest seasons of the series, the fourth and sixth, and yet I'd say season 5 is one of the weaker classic seasons (but still classic- there are a few great episodes like Treehouse of Horror IV, Rosebud and Cape Feare). Bart Gets an Elephant is probably the weakest episode of this season.
Its storyline, about Bart winning an African elephant in a radio contest, isn't very realistic or relatable. It has a few even crazier jokes, for example, having the dog talk and Patty and Selma taken by a tornado. With these kinds of episodes, though, having a writer like John Swartzwelder (the author of this episode) is a good idea, because he can at least make them funny. Indeed, Bart Gets an Elephant scores some laughs with Homer's dubious reasoning about ivory supply and demand, a character answering a question as to whether he's an ivory dealer, a d'oh-deer joke, Barney lighting a cigarette. These jokes save the episode from being outright bad- but most jokes fall flat, some of them seeming lazy, making this episode a low point in the classic years.
Its storyline, about Bart winning an African elephant in a radio contest, isn't very realistic or relatable. It has a few even crazier jokes, for example, having the dog talk and Patty and Selma taken by a tornado. With these kinds of episodes, though, having a writer like John Swartzwelder (the author of this episode) is a good idea, because he can at least make them funny. Indeed, Bart Gets an Elephant scores some laughs with Homer's dubious reasoning about ivory supply and demand, a character answering a question as to whether he's an ivory dealer, a d'oh-deer joke, Barney lighting a cigarette. These jokes save the episode from being outright bad- but most jokes fall flat, some of them seeming lazy, making this episode a low point in the classic years.