The joke
Bart: Hello, Mister...Kurns. I bad want...money now. Me sick.
Homer: Ooh, he card-reads good!
This is one of those episodes that sneaks up on you. Narrowing down my list of about thirty golden episodes into a compact ten, this fifth-season offering stayed towards the bottom at first until I gave it more and more thought - and then rewatched many of the candidates. It's a rather simple plot, with Burns' needing an heir to his fortune (since Smithers is to buried alive with him,) and Bart winning the prize by throwing rocks through Burns' mansion windows ("Ooh, look! A bird has become petrified and lost its sense of direction.") Tired of being repressed, Bart angrily leaves his family to live with Burns, only to grow homesick and give up his future fortune. So many classic gags are found here, from the now famous THX open (that they HAVE to run before the movie, but I just know they won't) to Burns singing "Let's all go to the lobby" to the entire, hilarious heir audition sequence culminating in Bart getting the boot. The episode has a solid ending, as well, with Bart not just leaving Burns but having him "move to the left" over the trap door in his office, sending him hurtling downwards towards Lenny's carcass. An often forgotten classic.
Now we reach the Golden Four. Making this list, everything beneath this point - numbers five and down - were up for debate. But there's no question about the top four episodes, starting with the single best gag machine gun in the show's run.