HOMR
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"HOMR" 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.
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[edit] Plot
When the family visits the Sick, Twisted and Totally F***ed 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 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. The scientists then say that if they remove the crayon, it could increase his brainpower, or it could possibly just kill him. Homer decides to have the operation, thinking it would increase his killing power.
After the crayon is removed, Homer's IQ goes up from 55 to 105 points, 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. With Homer's impressive intellect, he uses a mathematical hypothesis, in which he proves to Ned Flanders that there is no God. Worried of the evidence, Ned burns the piece of paper, in which he discovers Homer is spreading his discovery by slipping his fliers onto automobiles. At home, 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, and describes the procedure as "the old Crayola oblongata", a reference to the medulla oblongata. 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] Cultural references
- The title is a reference to WOPR, the computer from the 1983 movie WarGames, and may also be a reference to the movie CHAЯLY adapted from Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon (which also deal with a mentally retarded man who gets an experimental operation to increase his IQ, only to end up retarded by the story's end).
- 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.
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- "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.
- Homer invests at "IPO Friday's", a parody of the popular restaurant chain TGI Friday's.
- When Homer is getting his stock results, he says "Yahoo!" and gets that result, then says "What is this crap?". The show once again tweaks its bosses by having "crap" equal "Fox Broadcasting".
- Ozmodiar, a parody of The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones, appears twice during this episode, once after Bart says cartoons do not 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.
- While Homer solves the Rubik's Cubes, a DJ says over the radio "That sonata may not be a Glenn Gould performance, but I must say it's as good as Gould," a reference to famed Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
- 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 show also pokes fun at how many fans confused Pullman and Paxton as both character actors started appearing in hugely successful films starting in the mid-1990s.
- The line "Is that your final answer?" refers to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
- When the researchers examine the X-ray of Homer's brain they use a visual enhancement machine similar to the one used by Deckard in Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner.
- The name of the animation firm, Animotion is probably taken from the band known for their 1985 hit "Obsession"
- The animated dog that dances to Homer's movements during the Animotion process resembles Snoopy.
- During the couch gag in the opening credits, Fry from Futurama is on the sofa, before being sucked away again. However, his skin is yellow, like almost every character on the Simpsons.
- While mailing his suggestions in the suggestion tube, Homer is humming Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto Brandenburg #3.
- When the Simpson family visit the animation convention, Bob and Larry, from VeggieTales, are shown on one of the booths. There is also a booth dedicated to Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro next to Itchy and Scratchy's booth.
- This episode is referenced in The Simpsons comic "Laughter is not the Best Medicine". Dr. Hibbert shows an X-Ray of Homer's head and the crayon is seen.
- The crayon can also be seen in Jaws Wired Shut, Season 13 Episode 9.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- "HOMR" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "HOMЯ" at the Internet Movie Database
