Simpson and Delilah
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"Simpson and Delilah" is the second episode of The Simpsons' second season, which aired on October 18, 1990.
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[edit] Synopsis
Homer Simpson sees an ad for Dimoxinil, a new "miracle cure" for baldness. He visits a store which sells Dimoxinil, but it is far out of Homer's price range. At work, Lenny suggests Homer pay for Dimoxinil through the company medical insurance plan. He successfully applies the drug, and the next day, Homer wakes up with hair. At work, Mr. Burns surveys the security monitors to find a new person to promote to an executive position. He sees Homer with hair and, mistaking him for a young go-getter, chooses Homer for the job.
As he is about to become an executive, Homer tries to look for a good secretary, but all the applicants fail - until Homer finds a man, Karl, who applies. Homer eventually picks Karl, and they go shopping for a suit. Homer quickly becomes quite good at his new job. Burns is so impressed with Homer's efforts that he gives Homer the key to the executive washroom. Smithers begins to feel jealous of Homer and, after one look at Homer's file, discovers the case of insurance fraud that gave Homer hair in the first place.
Homer is about to be fired for the scam, but Karl takes the blame and is fired instead. Homer is invited to give a speech at the next meeting. Homer is nervous about giving the speech without Karl, but reasons that as long as he has hair, everything will be fine. When he gets home, he finds that Bart has used all of Homer's Dimoxinil in a misguided attempt to grow a beard. The next day, Homer, bald again, arrives at the meeting. His fears are allieviated when Karl appears with a pre-written speech for him. Homer presents his speech, but the audience is unable to take him seriously without hair. Rather than punishing him, Burns, a fellow sufferer of male pattern baldness, sympathizes with Homer's situation. Homer is demoted back to his old position.
[edit] Trivia
- Homer thinks the capital of North Dakota is Hitler while watching the TV show Grade School Challenge.
- Dimoxinil is a spoof on a similar product, Minoxidil, which was originally used for high blood pressure, and later became Rogaine.
- The address of Dimoxinil is 485 Hair Plaza in Hair City, Utah.
- The name of some of Homer's hair restoration products are "Bald Buster", "Hair Chow" and "Gorilla Man Scalp Blast".
- When Homer says he cannot afford the product he is offered "Hair in a Drum" for $19.95. The Dimoxinil salesperson tells him that any hair growth experienced while using the "Hair in a Drum" will be purely coincidental.
- Homer gets his hair cut at Jake's Unisex Hair Palace.
- Homer and Karl shop for a new suit at the Royal Majesty: For the Obese or Gangly Man.
- In this episode, Mr. Burns is revealed to be 81 years old.
- The character Karl was played by openly gay actor Harvey Fierstein, and it is at least implied that Karl is also gay. (In the booklet for the season's DVD set, it is said that Karl's character is gay). This marks the beginning of a trend of several LGBT characters on The Simpsons. The character was supposed to reappear in "Three Gays of the Condo," but Fierstein objected.
- This also features the first animated male-on-male kiss.
- This episode is unusual in that one of the guest characters has the same name as one of the (semi) regulars, in this case Carl (albeit spelt differently, with a K). Normally this would be avoided to prevent confusion, though Carl wasn't named until Season 3's Homer at the Bat (and was spelled as "Karl" by Homer in Principal Charming).
[edit] Cultural references
- The title comes from the Bible story "Samson and Delilah": Samson's strength depended on keeping Nazarite law, which included not cutting his hair.
[edit] External links
