Three Gays of the Condo
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"Three Gays of the Condo" is an Emmy Award-winning episode[1] from the fourteenth season of The Simpsons that aired April 13, 2003. The episode's title is derived from the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor.
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[edit] Plot
Marge brings an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle to the Simpsons Family Wednesdays. When Grampa sees that the box says "Suitable for ages from 8 to 80", he leaves in a huff with Maggie. The rest of the family is becoming increasingly engrossed in their slow but steady progress with the jigsaw.
Finally, the Simpsons finish the jigsaw puzzle. As they admire it, Ned Flanders points out that there is one piece missing. The family starts searching for the piece. Bart finds their old gerbil (who they thought had run away) under the sofa cushions and crosses himself solemnly. Homer searches his closet, saying "Puzzle piece, come out to play-ay..." (a reference to the 1979 film The Warriors). Instead, he finds a box labeled "Marge's Memory Chest," which contains a business card he made for Marge, an old T-shirt she wore to the Rolling Stones' "last concert ever" and an invitation to the opening of Moe's Tavern. Homer, on reading the writing on the back of the invitation, discovers that Marge was unhappy about sitting alone at Moe's while Homer played video games and drank himself silly. When Homer later got alcohol poisoning that day, she felt even more angry. In the present, Homer wonders why Marge stayed with him all this time and finds out that two days after his alcohol poisoning, she was pregnant. Marge enters the room after finding the missing jigsaw piece (found under Maggie's eyelid) and asks Homer why he looks unhappy. He confronts her with the note. She says that she was mad, and she loves him even if he does aggravate her. Angrily, he refuses to sleep in the same bed with her. He instead cries himself to sleep in Bart's bed.
The next morning, Homer gets even madder with Marge, packs up, and moves into Bachelor Arms' Apartments with Milhouse's dad, Kirk. However, after listening to the lonely man weep, Homer is ready to move back home - until he picks up a newspaper advertising an affordable room on the river. Homer unwittingly travels into Springfield's gay district. He encounters Waylon Smithers, roller-skating in a red tank top and bright blue shorts with rainbows down the sides. When Smithers sees Homer, he feigns ignorance of the surrounding gay area, though a tram full of gay men greet him, much to his embarrassment. Homer meets his new gay roommates, Grady and Julio. The three become good friends while shopping. Later, when Homer visits Marge, their meeting is rather icy and the family notices Homer's newly-acquired mannerisms. That night, at the local gay bar, Homer tells Grady and Julio that the chance for reconciliation is low.
The next day, Homer hears a sound outside his new apartment. From the balcony, he sees Marge and the kids, who have brought "Weird Al" Yankovic and his band, who play a song called "Homer and Marge" (spoofing John Mellencamp's song "Jack and Diane"), to tell Homer that Marge loves him very much. Marge then asks Homer out on a date, to which he agrees. That night Homer is nervous while preparing for his date, so his roommates bring out a margarita pitcher, which, according to Homer, "is Mexican for Marge", which he takes as a sign to drink. Meanwhile, at Medieval Times, Marge anxiously awaits Homer. Julio reminds Homer of his date and Homer runs to meet Marge. He shows up drunk. Marge, angry at his drunkenness, leaves. At the apartment, Grady tries to console Homer and slowly starts to come on to him. When he kisses Homer, Homer bolts out the window and runs to Moe's. There he wonders aloud whether he should give up drinking, considering that alcohol is to blame for all his relationship problems. Moe hears this epiphany and, unwilling to lose a regular customer, shoves a bottle of beer into Homer's mouth and forces him to drink "his medicine". Homer suffers alcohol poisoning and Moe wheels him to the hospital in a shopping cart. Moe is stopped by Chief Wiggum at the hospital emergency door, but blames another bar, saying they should close the place down.
After Homer is sober, he tells Dr. Hibbert that Marge must hate him. However, Hibbert shows him a videotape (which he made because he thought that his nurse was stealing sponges) that documents Homer's first alcohol poisoning. It shows Marge's compassion for the unconscious Homer, as she tells him she loves him. Back in the present, Marge comes inside the hospital room and says that she still loves Homer and they kiss.
Years later, a much older Hibbert is sitting in his den alone and feeling sorry for himself. All he has are videotapes of his patients. He is watching Homer and Marge kiss, when suddenly he sees that his nurse was, in fact, stealing his sponges.
[edit] Production
The character Grady is voiced by the openly gay comedian/actor Scott Thompson, most famous for being a member of the Canadian sketch comedy troupe The Kids In The Hall. "Weird Al" Yankovic has said that he was called in a week before the episode aired to re-record a line sung in the ending credits. The original line was "Oh yeah, we've got time to fill; why don't you go pee before King Of The Hill?" However, prior to the airing, it was found that King Of The Hill was moved earlier and that the time slot after The Simpsons was taken by the new show Oliver Beene. The new line was sung as "Oh yeah, 'Weird Al' had fun on this show; even if it was just a brief cameo".
The original script called for Harvey Fierstein to reprise his role as Karl, Homer's secretary from "Simpson and Delilah", but Fierstein publicly denounced the script as being homophobic and the script was revised.
[edit] Cultural references
- The "Homer and Marge" song that "Weird Al" sings is a parody of the song "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp.
- Dr. Hibbert's hair style on the videotape Homer watches is a reference to 80s pop musician, Ranking Roger.
- The restaurant Homer and Marge go to is a parody of Medieval Times .
- While searching for a puzzle piece in a coat closet, Homer says, "Puzzle piece, come out to play..." in reference to the 1979 film The Warriors.
- Homer refers to Maggie as Silent Bob.
- Mr. Smithers passes by a bakery called Sconewall Bakery, which refers to Stonewall.
- Homer says that he sent two songs called "Another One Bites the Crust" and "Livin' la Pizza Loca" to Weird Al, presumably as a parody of "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen and "Livin' la Vida Loca". Al seems unimpressed by Homer's idea, claiming "they were pretty much the same". This is a reference to the fact that Al gets many ideas for parodies from fans, most of which he rejects. On both his MySpace and website, Al states that he does not accept submissions for song parody ideas. Also, a possible reason Al didn't like "Another One Bites the Crust" was because he'd already done a parody of that song, entitled "Another One Rides the Bus".
- Weird Al's band members (Jim West, Steve Jay, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, and Rubén Valtierra) are depicted as providing the music for "Homer and Marge", but they do not make actual voice appearances.
- The song being used while the gay men take Homer shopping is "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys.
- This episode refers to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who moved in with an interracial gay couple during his marital problems and eventual divorce.
- The game Homer is seen playing when drunk at Moe's is Asteroids. Homer calls the ship the S.S. Triangle.
- Julio makes an appearance in Season 19's E. Pluribus Wiggum.
[edit] Awards
- Won the Emmy Award in 2003 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour).[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Emmy Awards: 2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
