Homer Badman

"Homer Badman", also known as "Homer: Bad Man",^[2] is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' sixth season and was originally aired on the 27th of November, 1994.^[3] It was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Jeffrey Lynch.^[2] In the episode, Homer is falsely accused of sexual harassment after a babysitter mistakes him grabbing a gummi candy stuck to her pants for a sexual pass at her, resulting in Homer becoming public enemy number one.^[3] Dennis Franz guest stars as himself.^[3]

Plot

Homer and Marge attend a candy convention and hire Ashley Grant, a feminist graduate student, to babysit Bart, Maggie and Lisa. At the convention, Homer outfits Marge with an oversized trenchcoat and is vigilant in smuggling out as much candy as possible in her pockets, including a rare gummy Venus de Milo.

That night, Homer searches for the gummy Venus amongst his smuggled goods, but is unable to find it. Marge reminds him to take Ashley home and Homer grudgingly obliges. As Ashley is exiting Homer's car, he sees the gummy Venus stuck to the backside of her jeans. Homer innocently grabs the candy, and Ashley turns around to see Homer drooling lustfully at the piece of candy. Misinterpreting his poor tact and drooling as a deliberate sexual advance, Ashley runs off screaming in terror while Homer gleefully eats the candy. The next morning, an angry mob marches onto the Simpsons' lawn and claims that Homer sexually harassed Ashley. Homer tries to explain his actions, but the crowd refuses to listen to his side of the story. When Rock Bottom, a tabloid news show, asks to interview him about his predicament, he agrees in the hope that it will clear his name. However, the interview is heavily (and poorly) edited into a totally inaccurate segment where Homer is portrayed as a pervert. Things go from bad to worse as a media circus arrives at the Simpson home to provide 24 hour coverage of things such as Marge letting the cat out and the family watching TV; Fox even produces a TV movie, Homer S.: Portrait of an Ass-Grabber, starring Dennis Franz as a lascivious Homer. Lisa and Marge suggest Homer videotape himself telling his side of the story to air on a Public-access television cable TV, but all he succeeds at accomplishing is angering an old-time bicyclist.

However, Groundskeeper Willie also saw Homer's speech, and arrives at the Simpson home with a video tape of what happened the night Homer took Ashley home. The tape clearly shows that Homer was grabbing the Gummy Venus, and upon seeing it, Ashley and the media apologize for labeling Homer a monster. Later on, the Simpson family is watching a "Rock Bottom" episode that labels Willie as a disgusting voyeur and Homer immediately declares that he is evil. Marge asks Homer if he learned anything from his experiences, to which Homer replies that he has not learned a thing.^[1][3][4]

Production

Greg Daniels, the writer of the episode, originally pitched this episode as being more centered on Lisa and Homer's opposing ideas on feminism. Eventually, the episode became more of a satire of the media and shows like Hard Copy.^[5] David Mirkin, the show runner at the time, felt very strongly about the "tabloidization of the media" and has said that the episode is as current today as it was at the time and things have since gotten worse.^[6] Several gags in the episode are based on what real life shows like Hard Copy would do, such as making people look to be guilty without a trial as well as a complete invasion of privacy by setting up camp outside people's homes.^[6] The talk show "Ben" reflects the writers' feeling that anyone could host a talk show because all they need is a microphone and an audience.^[6]

Casting

Dennis Franz was the writers' second choice for the role of Homer when the first choice pulled out.^[6] The original actor, whose name they refused to say, was apparently "barrel chested."^[7]

Cultural references

The action sequence at the Candy convention is "based on every Bruce Willis movie ever made."^[6] Homer's imagination of living underwater is a parody of the song "Under the Sea" from the Disney film The Little Mermaid. David Mirkin says he thought the sequence would be funny because Homer would eat all of the characters from The Little Mermaid.^[6] Groundskeeper Willie is referred to as Rowdy Roddy Peeper, a reference to "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, a wrestler who uses a Scotsman gimmick. Among the TV shows parodied during the episode: Hard Copy, Sally Jessy Raphael, the Late Show with David Letterman and media coverage of the O.J. Simpson standoff.^[6]

Reception

In its original broadcast, "Homer Badman" finished 50th in ratings for the week of November 21–27, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 9.5, equivalent to approximately 9.1 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, beating Married... with Children.^[8]

According to David Mirkin, this episode is very highly ranked among Simpsons fans.^[6] In Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episodes in 2003, "Homer Badman" was placed eighteenth.^[9] The Quindecim, a college newspaper, made their own top 25 list, with this episode at 15th place.^[10] The Daily Telegraph characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes."^[11]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Homer Badman

• "Homer Badman" at The Simpsons.com
• "Homer Badman" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Homer Badman" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Homer Badman" at BBC.co.uk, also contains a list of the "Rock Bottom corrections"
• "Homer Badman" at TV.com