Homer Defined

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Homer Defined


image_caption = Springfield's fate lies with Homer
episode_no = 40
prod_code = 8F04
airdate = October 17, 1991
show runner = Al Jean & Mike Reiss
writer = Howard Gewirtz
director = Mark Kirkland
blackboard = "I will not squeak chalk" (While Bart writes this, he makes a horrible squeaking noise)
couch_gag = An alien drinks beer on the couch and escapes through a trap door.
guest_star = Jon Lovitz as Aristotle Amadopoulos
Magic Johnson as himself
Chick Hearn as himself
commentary = Matt Groening
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Dan Castellaneta
Howard Gewirtz
Mark Kirkland
season = 3"Homer Defined" is the fifth episode of "The Simpsons"' third season, airing on October 17, 1991. The episode marks the first appearance of Milhouse's mother and the first time his surname, Van Houten, is used. It is also the second Simpsons episode where it is suggested that Smithers might be gay, with "The Telltale Head" being the first.

The episode featured the first appearance of a professional athlete in the series, Magic Johnson. At the end of the episode, he slips and lands by the feet of several beautiful women who admire him. Shortly after this episode aired, Johnson went public with the fact he has HIV as the result of having had extramarital relationships with over 200 women.

Plot

At the power plant, as Homer eats jelly donuts, one of them splatters onto a dial nearing the red zone. The plant is on the verge of a nuclear meltdown, and Homer seems to be the only person who can stop it. He has no skills and cannot remember any training, however, and in desperation chooses a button via eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Miraculously, Homer presses the button that averts the meltdown; Springfield is saved, and Homer is honored as a hero.

Mr. Burns rewards Homer for saving the plant with an "Employee of the Month" award (displacing longtime holder Smithers), a ham, a plaque, a discount coupon book, Burns's personal "thumbs-up", and a congratulatory call from Magic Johnson. Even Lisa begins to admire Homer as a role model, but Homer's conscience haunts him. He knows (and fears that everyone else will realize) that his "heroism" was nothing but luck. Burns introduces Homer to Aristotle "Ari" Amadopoulos, the owner of the Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant. Ari wants Homer the hero to give a pep talk to his plant's lackluster workers. Homer is hesitant to accept, but Burns forces him into it.

As Homer gives his fumbling "motivational" speech, an impending meltdown threatens the Shelbyville plant. The crowd marches Homer to the control room, asking him to perform his heroic deeds once again. In front of everyone, Homer repeats his juvenile rhyme and presses a button blindly. By sheer dumb luck, he manages to avert this meltdown as well. Ari thanks Homer for saving the plant but is angered to find out that it was done with just dumb luck rather than heroic intelligence. He is even more widely derided as a lucky imbecile than he was hailed as a hero, and "" becomes a widely-used phrase meaning "to succeed despite idiocy" (even entering the dictionary illustrated with a small portrait of Homer).

Subplot

On the bus ride to school, Bart gives Milhouse one of a pair of Krusty walkie-talkies as a birthday present. Bart is upset to discover that Milhouse had held a birthday party the previous Saturday, but he had not been invited. Milhouse seems unwilling to talk to Bart and avoids him for the rest of the day.

Milhouse finally tells Bart why he was not invited to the party: Mrs. Van Houten thinks Bart is a bad influence on her son. She has ordered Milhouse to stay away from Bart, which he has reluctantly done. Suddenly deprived of his best friend, a sad Bart goes upstairs into his room and opens his memo book of fun things that he did with Milhouse, and starts crying. Homer comes upstairs into Bart's room to try to calm Bart down. Bart resorts to playing with Maggie.

Marge, who has discovered the reason Bart is not playing with Milhouse, is initially angered. She visits Milhouse's mother and, although she admits that Bart is a "bit of a handful," she explains that the two are best friends and have only each other, because "they're too young for girls." Mrs. Van Houten, upon realising that neither Bart nor Milhouse benefit from her decision, relents. Afterward, Milhouse invites Bart over to his house, and Bart happily pulls out a BB gun to "play" with.

Debut Appearances

Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:
*Luann Van Houten

Censorship

In the original airing of the episode, Bart's retort to Milhouse was "Bad influence, my ass!" Meanwhile, Mr. Burns stated, "I guess there's nothing left but to kiss my sorry butt goodbye." After receiving complaints, Fox ordered the producers to alter Bart's dialogue, which in turn led to a negotiated compromise. All Fox repeats featured Bart's line as, "Bad influence, my butt!" and Mr. Burns' as "I guess there's nothing left but to kiss my sorry ass goodbye." The original dialogue appears in syndication; the changed version appears The Complete Third Season Boxset.

Cultural references

*"Homer Defined" features many references to nuclear incidents. The news coverage of the crisis at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant parodies the coverage of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.
*The children duck under their desks in a fashion taught to U.S. elementary school students during the early years of the Cold War.
*When Homer stops the first meltdown, the timer stops on 007. This is reminiscent of the ending of "Goldfinger" where James Bond stops a timer on a bomb and the timer ends on 007, his agent number. The timer in the plant also looks exactly like the one in the movie.
*While desperate, Homer looks back to his nuclear plant training and sees himself attempting to solve the Rubik's Cube (a common cultural icon of the 1980s, when this screen was set). He then blames the puzzle for distracting him.
*Otto hums Frankenstein by The Edgar Winter Group while driving the bus to the Kwik-E-Mart.
*The Itchy and Scratchy episode that Bart and Lisa watch is titled "My Dinner With Itchy," a parody of the movie My Dinner with Andre.

External links

* [http://www.snpp.com/episodes/8F04.html Episode Capsule on "Simpsons Archive"]