Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words

"Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words"
The Simpsons episode
Promotional image featuring Merl Reagle, Homer, Lisa, and Will Shortz.
Episode no.	Season 20 Episode 6
Directed by	Nancy Kruse
Written by	Tim Long[1]
Featured music	Word Up! by Cameo
Production code	KABF19
Original air date	November 16, 2008 (2008-11-16)
Guest appearances
Merl Reagle as himself Will Shortz as himself Scott Thompson as Grady
Episode features
Couch gag	In a reference to the Vesuvius eruption, the family sits on a bench dressed in togas, and is covered in volcanic ash.
Episode chronology
← Previous "Dangerous Curves" Next → "MyPods and Boomsticks"
The Simpsons season 20
List of episodes

"Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" is the sixth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 16, 2008. In the episode, Lisa discovers that she has a talent for solving crossword puzzles, and she enters a crossword tournament. Lisa's feelings are hurt when she discovers that Homer bet against her in the championship match.

The episode was inspired by Patrick Creadon's 2006 documentary Wordplay, and was written by Tim Long, and directed by Nancy Kruse. Crossword puzzle creators Merl Reagle and Will Shortz guest star as themselves in the episode while Scott Thompson has a cameo as Grady, a character he first voiced in "Three Gays of the Condo". Reagle created all of the crossword puzzles that appear in the episode and as a promotion for the episode, a special Simpsons-related message (dedicated to this episode) that appeared in The New York Times Sunday crossword on November 16, 2008.

The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, and finished fourth in its timeslot during its initial airing on Fox, with a 3.9 Nielsen rating.