HOMR

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The Simpsons episode
""

Episode no.	257
Prod. code	BABF22
Orig. Airdate	January 7, 2001
Show Runner(s)	Mike Scully
Writer(s)	Al Jean
Director(s)	Mike B. Anderson
Chalkboard	"Network TV is not dead"
Couch gag	There are five pneumatic tubes over the couch, which spit out Homer, Marge, Maggie, Lisa, and Fry (from Futurama). Fry is sucked back up, and Bart replaces him.
SNPP capsule
Season 12 November 1, 2000 – May 20, 2001
Treehouse of Horror XI A Tale of Two Springfields Insane Clown Poppy Lisa the Tree Hugger Homer vs. Dignity The Computer Wore Menace Shoes The Great Money Caper Skinner's Sense of Snow HOMR Pokey Mom Worst Episode Ever Tennis the Menace Day of the Jackanapes New Kids on the Blecch Hungry, Hungry Homer Bye Bye Nerdie Simpson Safari Trilogy of Error I'm Goin' to Praiseland Children of a Lesser Clod Simpsons Tall Tales
List of all Simpsons episodes...

"" is the ninth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on January 7, 2001, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.

1 Synopsis
2 Trivia
3 Cultural references
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
7 Notes

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

When the family visits the Sick, Twisted and Totally F***** up Animation Festival,^[1] Homer discovers Animotion, a motion capture technology that enables a cartoon character to mimic a human's movements. He likes it so much that he invests the family's life savings in Animotion. However, just after making the investment, the company goes into super-duper bankruptcy. To earn the family's life savings money back, Homer takes a job at a medical testing center. During one experiment, the doctors find a crayon lodged in Homer's brain from when he was a child, which has been the cause of his life-long stupidity.

After the crayon is removed, Homer's IQ goes up to 105 points (that is, to 5 points above average intelligence), which allows him to form a bond with Lisa. Homer then writes a report on the nuclear plant's safety, which results in the plant's shutting down, and the laying off of all employees. Homer's friends, initially thrilled to have a smarter Homer around, quickly reject him, and Homer is even burned in effigy at Moe's Tavern. Lisa tries to explain, with the aid of a graph, that as you get smarter, happiness decreases. Homer decides to put a crayon back in his brain, with the aid of Moe—who says he is an unlicensed surgeon. He arrives home his old, dumb, self, which initially disappoints Lisa. However, she finds a letter Homer wrote to her before the surgery, explaining that he now understands what it is like to be smart like her, and how much more he appreciates her because of this. Instead of being upset over her father's decision, the episode ends with Lisa embracing him.

[edit] Trivia

Moe is revealed to be an unlicensed surgeon in his spare time.
Moe describes the procedure of putting a crayon into Homer's brain via the nasal cavity as "the old crayola oblongata", a malapropism of the part of the brainstem called the medulla oblongata.
During the couch gag in the opening credits, Fry from Futurama is on the sofa, before being sucked away again.
While mailing his suggestions in the suggestion tube, Homer is humming Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto Brandenburg #3.
Homer also discovers that after completing a flat tax proposal he accidentally proves that there is no god.
Right after Homer removes the crayon, he comes home and says that he increased his IQ by 50 points, later on he says his IQ now is 105 points implying his IQ was 55 points before he removed the crayon.
Though homer's normal I.Q. is said to be 105, some of the mental feats he performs would actually mean his I.Q is closer to lisa's which is 156. This would make his actual I.Q. 140 or more, especially when considering the fact that normal IQ is actually 100.

[edit] Cultural references

This episode is similar to the novel Flowers for Algernon, and the reverse R, similar in shape but otherwise completely unrelated to the Cyrillic letter Ya (Я), in the title is from that novel's first film adaptation, CHAЯLY.
The Sick, Twisted, and Totally F***ed Up Animation Festival may be modeled after Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation.
The clay animation watched by Flanders and his kids, The New Gravey and Jobriath, is a parody of Davey and Goliath, a similarly Christian-themed animation. This is one of the few scenes in the show to depart from traditional cel or cel-style animation.

"Gravey" intends to blow up Planned Parenthood, a pro-choice collection of organizations.
"Jobriath" was also the stage name of a 1970s glam rock singer.

The faux old footage of Itchy & Scratchy advertising for Laramie Cigarettes is likely a reference to the first season of The Flintstones, when commercials aired featuring Fred and Barney enjoying Winston Cigarettes.
Ozmodiar, a parody of The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones, appears twice during this episode, once after Bart says cartoons don't have to make sense, and once more after all the employees are laid off from the plant.
Homer blames eBay (rapidly gaining fame at the time this episode premiered) for the poor-quality cowbell he purchased.
Intelligent Homer solves multiple Rubik's Cubes in his spare time.
The Film "Love is Nice", starring Julia Roberts, Richard Gere and Bill Pullman (but not Bill Paxton) is a parody of the other Roberts and Gere films, Runaway Bride and Pretty Woman. The line "Is that your final answer?" refers to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.