Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about an episode of The Simpsons. For the film, see O Brother, Where Art Thou?
"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' second season.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
After watching the latest McBain movie, Grampa Simpson suffers a heart attack. This prompts him to confess a long-hidden secret: Homer has a half-brother.
As Grampa explains, he had met a carnival floozy and prostitute before marrying Homer's mother. They had a son, and left him at the Shelbyville Orphanage. Determined to find his brother, Homer and his family go to the orphanage and find out that Abe's son was adopted by a Mr. and Mrs. Powell and named Herbert.
Herb Powell (who looks just like Homer, except with more hair and a little less gut) is the head of Powell Motors car company (in danger of being taken over by the Japanese because of otherwise poor management). He is very rich, but is quite unhappy not knowing who he is and where he comes from. He is overjoyed upon hearing of his half-brother and invites the entire Simpson family to stay at his mansion in Detroit.
Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are enthralled by Herb's wealthy lifestyle (though Marge constantly worries about spoiling her kids), and Herb decides that Homer, being an "average" American, is the perfect person to design a new car for his company. Homer is given entirely free rein in the design, too late for Herb to realize that his brother is somewhat "unaverage". Homer adds all sorts of weird effects-like bubble domes, fins and several horns that play "La Cucaracha".
At the unveiling of "The Homer", Herb is horrified to discover that the car is a monstrosity that costs $82,000 (significantly more when inflation adjusted for today). Herb's company folds, his mansion is sold off and he leaves regretting that he ever met his brother. As he departs on the bus he angrily remarks to Homer that he "has no brother". Lisa laments, "His life was an unbridled success... until he found out he was a Simpson." In the end of this episode, while Homer drives the family home, Bart tells him that the car he built was great. Homer became relieved that at least one person seems to like it.
[edit] Trivia
- In the video games The Simpsons Hit & Run and The Simpsons Road Rage, the Homer is a drivable vehicle, complete with a horn which plays "La Cucaracha.".
- Herb returns, and his plight is resolved, in the later episode "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes?"
- This episode marks the first appearance of Homer's mother, who is voiced by Maggie Roswell. She is seen again in another flashback in "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and then turns out to be alive and reunited with her family in "Mother Simpson" where she is voiced by Glenn Close.
- A few of the things suggested for "The Homer", like super-sized cup holders and built-in media-players, are now incorporated into modern day cars.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of this episode is also the name of the non-existent book "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" in the Preston Sturges film Sullivan's Travels. The film is also where the Coen Brothers got the name for their movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
- The storyline echoes a notorious marketing disaster of the late 1950s. The Edsel was a line of Ford automobiles named after Henry Ford's only son, featuring many stylistic quirks; it became one of the biggest bombs in the history of the industry.
- The storyline is also that of "Tucker, a Man and his dream", which was made into a movie in 1987 by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. The unveiling of the car on the turntable is faithful to the movie, down to the pink gowns worn by the girls.
- Herb Powell lives in a house that looks like Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Oak Park, Illinois, works in a studio that looks like the Taliesin school of architecture in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and his factory is none other than the Johnson Wax Company in Racine, Wisconsin, all three buildings designed by Wright.
[edit] External links
